Softbank announced on Friday it has partnered with Huawei and ZTE for joint research into 5G technology.
The Japanese oper ator will run the project via its Wireless City Planning (WCP) division. WCP built Softbank’s AXGP network, a TD-LTE-compatible 4G network based on the Personal Handy-phone System (PHS) network that Softbank took over when it acquired Willcom in 2010.
WCP, Huawei and ZTE will specifically focus on enhancing Massive Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) and spectral efficiency technologies to improve mobile coverage and capacity.
Softbank said in a statement that the three companies will conduct trials of advanced technology, "and develop technologies that will become global standards in next-generation communications."
Softbank’s rival NTT DoCoMo made headlines in 2013 when it declared that it would have 5G networks up and running in time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. At the time the industry only had a vague idea of what 5G might look like.
Since then, telco players and industry bodies the world over have drawn up a wish-list of 5G capabilities, but the industry is still some way off working out exactly how they will be met.
This has not stopped the hype machine though, and South Korea has pledged to launch ‘pre-standard’ 5G in time for the PyeongChang Winter Olympics in 2018 – two years before the ITU is due to finalise the 5G standard.
