NTT DOCOMO has been pre-licensed by the Kanto Bureau of Telecommunications of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications for field experiments of LTE-Advanced, a true 4G mobile communication technology that provides data rates much faster than currently possible with LTE.

Once the license is issued, DOCOMO will begin field experiments of LTE-Advanced in real radio environments in the cities of Yokosuka and Sagamihara in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan.

In the field experiments, the performance of key technologies for LTE-Advanced implemented in the experimental equipment are planned to be evaluated in indoor and outdoor environments.

DOCOMO has already confirmed the performance of LTE-Advanced technologies using radio environment simulators in its R&D center, achieving transmission data rates of approximately 1 Gbps in the downlink and 200 Mbps in the uplink.

DOCOMO currently offers LTE on a commercial basis under the Xi™ (“Crossy”) brand in Japan. LTE-Advanced is backward compatible with LTE, which will enable a smooth migration from DOCOMO’s existing LTE network.