Japanese carrier NTT DOCOMO plans to conduct experimental trials of emerging 5G mobile communications technologies with six mobile technology vendors: Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Fujitsu, NEC, Nokia and Samsung.

NTT DOCOMO and Huawei announced today that their joint test has successfully demonstrated that LTE can be deployed over the 5GHz unlicensed spectrum, which is widely used for wireless LAN networks in many countries today.

Alcatel-Lucent  and Vodafone are conducting the first European field trial of TWDM-PON ultra-broadband access technology as the operator prepares its network to address growing network data traffic and mobile backhaul demands.

Zain Saudi Arabia has announced commercial launch of 4G LTE network.

ZTE has helped China Telecom successfully complete commercial testing for IPv6 capabilities on its mobile network in Hunan province, a key milestone in China Telecom’s plans for future 4G LTE deployment.

U.S. carrier MetroPCS has selected Ericsson as the supplier of equipment and services to transform its distributed nationwide Evolved Packet Core network. The transformation will enhance key services including high-speed data, voice over LTE (VoLTE) and Rich Communication Services for MetroPCS customers across the United States.

Analysts IDATE predicts more than 915 million LTE subscriptions worldwide by the end of 2016 and expects first billion to be exceeded during 2017. Asia-Pacific is expected to represent a sizeable 41.6% of the total, North America 21.6%, Africa/Middle East 7.5%, Eastern Europe 4.9% and Western Europe 15.8%.