Nokia teases blistering 5G speeds of 2Gbps

Nokia and NTT Docomo have teamed up to develop a 5G service, which offers speeds of up to 2Gbps by using previous unused spectrum.

The two companies announced their venture at a demonstration at Barcelona's Mobile World Congress, which was made possible by utilising higher frequency bands including millimetre waves.

Seizo Onoe, chief technology officer at NTT DoCoMo, said: "We believe that high-frequency spectrum shall be used not just for small cells as a means to complement the existing network, but also for building solid area coverage through coordination with existing lower frequency bands.

"The success of this indoor trial with Nokia Networks using the 70GHz band marks an important step forward in our 5G vision for 2020."

The longer-term plans are to implement a 5G network at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, although the two companies will need to optimise the technologies for indoor and outdoor use to ensure it is reliable enough for a commercial rollout.

Currently, 4G connections can obtain speeds of up to 300Mbps, so this technology will enable speeds to increase exponentially.

Nokia is predicting wireless data traffic will grow 10,000 fold within the next 20 years and thinks that 50 billion devices will be connected to mobile networks by 2025, feeding the need for networks to embrace the super-charged wireless internet services.

Hossein Moiin, CTO, Nokia Networks, said: "Moving ahead on our pledge to cooperate on 5G research and innovation for developing and validating 5G, we have laid a strong foundation for realising DOCOMO's 5G vision.

"We will ensure that our focus is clearly trained on helping the operator monetize the immense revenue potential of future-ready technologies to effectively address ever-increasing network coverage and capacity requirements."

Last September, Nokia announced it was trialling 5G in Finland and plans to open up APIs to partners when the trials are complete.