Japan will implement 5G communications nationwide in 2023 to promote the development of autonomous driving

According to foreign media reports, Japan's three mobile communication operators will begin to provide 5G wireless communication services to customers in 2020. At least one of them plans to provide 5G services throughout Japan by 2023, which will promote Japan’s automatic driving and The rapid development of internet of things (internet of things) technology.

It is understood that NTTDocomo, KDDI Corporation and SoftBank Group are expected to invest a total of 5 trillion yen (approximately US$45.7 billion) to launch 5G communication services throughout Japan. The three communications giants will first commercialize 5G communications in certain areas in Tokyo and in the restricted areas of the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics in 2020. Dokimo CEO Kazuhiro Yoshizawa said that the company plans to achieve the nationwide coverage of 5G signals as soon as possible in fiscal year 2023.

In addition, global standards for 5G communications services are expected to be finalized by the end of this year. 5G technology will be more than 100 times faster than the existing 4G technology. Since the development of equipment compatible with 5G communication services will take another year or so, the above-mentioned mobile communication providers in Japan plan to start investing heavily in base station components, servers, and special equipment as early as the 2019 fiscal year.

5G communications services will inspire tremendous social benefits. The new communications service network is expected to enable self-driving cars to interact within 0.001 seconds, which can greatly reduce the accident rate. The industrial sector, including the automotive industry, will also greatly benefit from IoT technology under 5G communication services. The interaction between a large number of devices will be faster and further increase the production efficiency of the factory. Of course, other areas will also benefit greatly. For example, in the media, users can use 5G signals to watch live sports live more smoothly, and they can also achieve multiple viewing angles.

With the installation of the existing 4G LTE network, Doktor, KDDI, and Softbank spent a total of 6 trillion yen. However, the cost of installing 5G signals will be slightly reduced, because these three major operators can easily convert some 4G base stations into 5G base stations.

At the same time, Doktro's parent company, Nippon Telegraph & Telephone, also proposed to share 5G base stations with two other major competitors to further reduce costs. KDDI and Softbank are likely to agree, especially sharing base stations in urban areas.

Despite good results, due to the slowdown in user growth, threatening the company's medium and long-term growth plan, the three major Japanese operators decided to work together. At the same time, they are also facing tremendous pressure from slower growth of smartphone users and fierce competition from other economic smart phone operators.

Other large mobile communication providers in the world have also made similar moves. U.S. giant Verizon Communications plans to launch 5G service as early as next year; China Mobile plans to increase investment in 2019-2020 and commercialize 5G technology by 2020; Korea Telecom (KT) plan will Testing of 5G-compliant technologies will begin next year.