Ericsson and KDDI Come Together to Advance 5G Technology

When 5G launches, it will introduce a new level of connectivity delivering a seamless user experience. Until that time gets here, companies are performing research and development using the technology for use cases, requirements and deployment scenarios, which is what Ericsson and KDDI have done by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) of their joint venture.

The 5G network will use multiple input multiple output (MiMo) and other technologies to deliver the blazing 1GB per second speeds researchers are promising. And to make this possible, operators will spend a huge sum of money, with South Korean companies slated to spend more than $300 billion, according to the country’s minister of engineering, science and technology.

The MoU between Ericsson and KDDI, a Japanese communications company providing fixed-line and mobile communications services, has as its primary goal to advance technology evolution toward 5G. The companies will evaluate performance and applicability of potential components, which include radio and core technologies.

"We are committed to providing high-quality network performance and user experience to address the needs and expectation of our customers. Through our joint efforts with Ericsson we will study 5G technologies and take an important step toward bringing 5G capabilities to the market," said Yoshiaki Uchida, Managing Executive Officer, Technology Sector, Member of the Board, KDDI.

According to Ericsson, when 5G is fully deployed, it will revolutionize the communications ecosystem around the world. Whether it is mobile access, IP core, cloud, the Internet of Things (IoT) or anything requiring a connection, 5G will deliver performance that is much better than 4G. This includes improvement in core network capabilities that will be based entirely on Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) and software-defined networking (SDN) technologies.

The earliest deployment of 5G, which will be in a trial mode, is going to take place in South Korea in 2017, with other countries to follow some time later. But wide availability will not take place until 2025 for many parts of the world, with developed countries seeing earlier adoption.

Yoshiaki Uchida, Managing Executive Officer in the Technology Sector and a Member of the Board at KDDI, said “We are committed to providing high-quality network performance and user experience to address the needs and expectation of our customers. Through our joint efforts with Ericsson we will study 5G technologies and take an important step toward bringing 5G capabilities to the market.”