Nokia has signed an agreement with Japan's mobile operator NTT DOCOMO to supply 5G baseband equipments for aiming to deploy in a 5G mobile network planned to be in commercial service by 2020.

Nokia will support NTT DOCOMO's commercial 5G operation in Japan by further enhancing existing baseband units and integrating its 5G New Radio (5G NR)-based AirScale hardware in the network.

The two companies have also worked closely together in trials of 5G technologies, and now agree on supply of Nokia's 5G BBUs to be able to do centralized management for 5G RRHs (remote radio heads) for aiming to deploy in 5G network. This is aligned with NTT DOCOMO's 5G direction, which is fully utilizing existing C-RAN architecture for 5G. 

Based on the agreement, Nokia will support NTT DOCOMO in the evolution of its network from 4G/LTE to 5G, providing technology based on the new 3GPP-compliant 5G NR standard, the first stage of which was published shortly before the end of 2017.

According to Nokia, the company is involved in more than 50 customer trials of the technology around the world, ahead of expected commercial launches between 2019 and 2020. Nokia is also active within the broad industry ecosystem, working closely with chipset and device manufacturers alike, as well as working with all initial 5G frequency bands, including 3.5GHz, mmwave bands, 28GHz, and 39GHz.