Ericsson Trial 10Gbps 5G Mobile Broadband Network in Japan

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Ericsson Trial 10Gbps 5G Mobile Broadband Network in Japan

Posted by samzenpus on Monday May 12, 2014 @06:55AM from the greased-lightning dept.

Mark.JUK (1222360) writes "Japanese mobile operator NTT DOCOMO has announced that they'll make use of Ericsson's advanced antenna technologies and radio base stations in order to conduct one of the world's first trials of a possible 5G based Mobile Broadband technology in Yokosuka (Japan), which aims to deliver downstream speeds of more than 10 Gigabits per second using the 15GHz radio spectrum frequency. But this is just one possible candidate for 5G connectivity and many organizations are still working to try and define an official standard, while most countries don't expect the first services to be deployed until around the year 2020."

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Yay? by OverlordQ · 2014-05-12 06:55 · Score: 1

Still waiting on decent 3/4G speeds here in the US.

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1. Re:Yay? by sunking2 · 2014-05-12 07:02 · Score: 2
  
  Move to a hyper populated area and be happy paying triple rent for half the space and you can have it.
2. Re:Yay? by slashmydots · 2014-05-12 07:08 · Score: 2
  
  You do know that your phone's memory almost definitely can't process and buffer data that fast anyway, right? Decent smartphones can usually write to their flash memory at about 80MB/s. They can buffer to RAM faster but run out of their usually 1-2GB of DDR3 extremely quickly. So hooking it up to 10GBps seems pointless to me.
3. Re:Yay? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-05-12 07:21 · Score: 0
  
  Bah, network congestion makes that an iffy prospect anyhow.
4. Re:Yay? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-05-12 07:51 · Score: 0
  
  Well, 6 years from now (2020, when the article says this might start getting deployed at the earliest), those numbers will probably be a good amount higher. Also, network congestion is a big problem for using the full bandwidth of a wireless connection. Essientially, that 10GBps is going to be shared among some (possibly fairly high) number of users. 1000 users all being able to get 10MBps on their cell phones simultaneously would pretty good.
5. Re:Yay? by evilviper · 2014-05-12 08:04 · Score: 1
  
  Decent smartphones can usually write to their flash memory at about 80MB/s.
  Oddly enough, streaming videos doesn't actually require writing the data out to flash... Go figure. 80MBytes/sec is higher than highdef, and more like 4K video, but we'll get there soon.
  
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6. Re:Yay? by Threni · 2014-05-12 08:04 · Score: 1
  
  If you're attempting to suggest that browsing the web, downloading apps and updates is no faster on 4G than on 3G then I'm here to tell you that you're very, very wrong.
7. Re:Yay? by alen · 2014-05-12 08:22 · Score: 1
  
  half the time it isn't because the content is in the cloud on oversubscribed servers
  vmware and any hypervisor will let you add instances that use more physical CPU/RAM resources than a physical server has. half my apps take a lot longer to update data than what my LTE phones should be running at. on verizon and AT&T
8. Re:Yay? by Mr+D+from+63 · 2014-05-12 08:29 · Score: 1
  
  So, looks like Netflix will have another fast lane to purchase.
9. Re:Yay? by phoenix_rizzen · 2014-05-12 08:32 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Not to mention all the time spent waiting for the 17 different CDN services to respond to download content, all the time spent waiting for the 23 different ad networks to respond to download content, all the time spent waiting for the various DNS servers to respond with the correct IPs, etc.
  Sure, the actual downloads of the various bits of data is very fast. But that's the shortest/quickest part of loading a web page. And all the other bits and bobs and bottlenecks are the same, regardless of what speed of network connection you have.
10. Re:Yay? by PrimaryConsult · 2014-05-12 08:56 · Score: 1
  
  The U.S. isn't represented by $is_overpopulated_city = ($numPeople > $numCows) ? true : false;
  There's plenty of areas where you can get both 3 and 4g wireless *and* drive stress free at 5PM... ride Amtrak sometime and look at what phones gets at each town the train stops in. Large towns have low buildings (thus the cell towers can reach farther) and with lower population density, there's less demand placed on those cell towers.
11. Re:Yay? by Buzer · 2014-05-12 09:12 · Score: 1
  
  80MBytes/sec = 640Mbps. That's about 600x higher than what Netflix uses for 1080p. 4K has only 4x as many pixels as 1080p. 1080p BR has 40Mbps maximum video bitrate.
12. Re:Yay? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-05-12 09:33 · Score: 0
  
  You must be joking, the US is by far the leader in 4G deployments.
13. Re:Yay? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-05-12 09:33 · Score: 0
  
  Fayetteville Arkansas. Unlike the rest of Arkansas. Pot is legal in this town. And the cops are all cool. Never had a bad run-in with the cops here, and I have run-ins with them pretty regularly. And we get good cell coverage. Because we don't have very tall buildings.
14. Re:Yay? by amorsen · 2014-05-12 10:08 · Score: 1
  
  Mobile data speeds are only available if you are the only active subscriber on that cell and you are standing right next to it. In practice you will see a small fraction of the speed, unless you are one of the lucky field testers using it before normal subscribers are allowed in.
  10Gbps per cell should enable a stable 100Mbps connection in practice even at peak hour, and that would be very useful.
  
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15. Re:Yay? by amorsen · 2014-05-12 10:10 · Score: 1
  
  4G has much lower latency than 3G. That helps a lot when dealing with the various delays, even if you never get anywhere near the maximum bandwidth.
  
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16. Re:Yay? by jratcliffe · 2014-05-12 10:16 · Score: 0
  
  Seriously? The US has notably faster mobile data speeds than Europe, and much (but not all) of Asia. Higher tariffs, too, but definitely higher average speeds (see figure 7).
17. Re:Yay? by shaitand · 2014-05-12 15:01 · Score: 1
  
  No. No you can't. Oh sure, your phone will light up with a 4G logo on it but there will still be a wait time when you load google in your browser.
18. Re:Yay? by shaitand · 2014-05-12 15:05 · Score: 1
  
  It's called tethering. But it still doesn't matter unless they get rid of the caps. And phones don't actually deliver anything near the advertised 4G but not really speeds as it is.
19. Re:Yay? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-05-12 17:11 · Score: 0
  
  You are welcome to move to Sweden, where Ericsson was founded.
20. Re:Yay? by Threni · 2014-05-12 19:44 · Score: 1
  
  Also, 4G isn't just about speed, but coverage. You can't call it 4G without a minimum stationary and another minimum if moving. 3G can be a bit naff in that respect.
21. Re:Yay? by Yaotzin · 2014-05-12 22:22 · Score: 1
  
  IANANE but I've heard that 5G isn't supposed to be about increased download rates since, as you say, there is little point. The point is as I understand rather increased capacity to allow a larger number of people to be able to utilize and reach the rate cap (~80 MB/s) simultaneously.
  
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22. Re:Yay? by log0n · 2014-05-13 07:36 · Score: 1
  
  80MB/s write? You're high.
  My HTC One (m7) barely reaches 12MB steady, occasionally peaks near 15MB.
23. Re:Yay? by hobarrera · 2014-05-13 10:10 · Score: 1
  
  Still waiting for actual 3G coverage here in Argentina. Decent 3G is simply unrealistic.
24. Re:Yay? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-05-13 13:51 · Score: 0
  
  Any source? Other countries in Europe and Asia seem to do at least as well, the U.S. has no lead in any 4G ranking:
  http://opensignal.com/reports/state-of-lte-q1-2014/
Awesome by Anonymous Coward · 2014-05-12 07:01 · Score: 0

I could burn through my data plan in only 2 seconds instead of the generous 40 minutes of max speed I'm allotted now! Progress!
can run up the bill fast up to by Anonymous Coward · 2014-05-12 07:04 · Score: 0

With both roaming and going over the cap.
and when roaming will they stop you before the bill hits $10K $20K or more can you hit $100K in a day and lets say it takes a day for you to be turned off will they hunt you down to pay that bill?
Don't worry about your data plan(s)... by jddeluxe · 2014-05-12 07:10 · Score: 3, Informative

Using the 15 Ghz spectrum is going to require an external antenna/dish for reception...
1. Re:Don't worry about your data plan(s)... by DarwinSurvivor · 2014-05-12 08:59 · Score: 1
  
  If that's all it took to get those speeds, I'd already have 3 dishes and half a dozen antennas.
2. Re:Don't worry about your data plan(s)... by amorsen · 2014-05-12 10:13 · Score: 1
  
  It will require line-of-sight or at least line-of-sight-including-reflections, but outdoors it should be just fine. Getting it inside buildings will likely require at least passive repeaters.
  
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3. Re:Don't worry about your data plan(s)... by tomofumi · 2014-05-13 15:54 · Score: 1
  
  maybe they assume you will switch to WiFi once you go indoors, rather than 5G?
$12.50/second! by Anonymous Coward · 2014-05-12 07:18 · Score: 3, Insightful

At Verizon's current sell rates for data, 10 Gbps downstream would cost around $12.50 per second. It would cost less for the first few gigs per month because they are selling plans with almost-reasonable per-gig costs now with their "2x more" campaign. So even on the charitable side, if they gave you 100 gigs (gigaBYTES) of data for $2 per gigabyte -- a price that is lower than anything any carrier currently offers aside from grandfathered unlimited plans -- you'd be burning $2.50 per second while downloading at full tilt. You'd exhaust your 100 GB pre-paid data chunk in 40 seconds.
Those of you who think there's no way they'd have the same cost per gigabyte in a 5G world, think again: the "overage" charge per gigabyte has been fixed at $10/GB for a very, very long time now, and it doesn't seem like it's going to change. The only way to get slightly lower per-GB costs is to buy a lot of data in advance, but even their highest tier plan is not "a lot", and it's still way too expensive to be practical for anything but light web surfing.
1. Re:$12.50/second! by electrosoccertux · 2014-05-12 18:06 · Score: 1
  
  I have a bigger problem with the whole proxy business. I have a great fat LTE pipe to the internet that speedtests great 24/6 but in the middle is a proxy I can't get rid of that inserts 10 seconds of latency to respond every time the phone loads a webpage.
cool by beefoot · 2014-05-12 07:19 · Score: 1

Cool ... while my friend is still on the top tier 6mbps DSL connection, ahem.
mobile broadband? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-05-12 07:23 · Score: 0

Because it's impossible to use mobile broadband for anything but smartphones? :)
What about residential broadband where they lack a fiber connection for example?
1. Re:mobile broadband? by shaitand · 2014-05-12 15:02 · Score: 1
  
  It is with the ridiculous capped data plans available in the US.
Comment removed by account_deleted · 2014-05-12 07:37 · Score: 1

Comment removed based on user account deletion
2020 is optimistic by Anonymous Coward · 2014-05-12 07:38 · Score: 0

I don't doubt that the spec will be finished by 2020 but it will be a few years before spectrum is allocated and the infrastrucuture is built. It remains to be seen whether 4G will be a commercial success for telcos. in the long run and I don't think they'll be in a hurry to invest the hundreds of millions of capital required to upgrade to a 5G network.
Until the demand for bandwidth catches up it simply isn't financially viable for telcos to upgrade every 10 years. 2G -> 3G -> 4G only happened because content consumption changed. Now there is demand to steam HD on the go. I can't see content requiring 10Gbps+ becoming mainsteam in the next 10 years and therefore there is little incentive for 5G.
15Ghz sounds cool and all, but... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-05-12 07:39 · Score: 1

Wouldn't 15Ghz have a hard time penetrating walls? This sounds like more of a line-of-sight (antenna or directional dish) communication than mobile device.
1. Re:15Ghz sounds cool and all, but... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-05-12 07:49 · Score: 0
  
  The state of the art seems to be beamforming with millimeter waves. Bounce them off of reflective objects until they get where they need to be. Kinda like one of those Looney Tunes cartoons where the bullet bounces around for 10 seconds before smacking into the coyote (or am I thinking of the wrong cartoon?).
2. Re:15Ghz sounds cool and all, but... by evilviper · 2014-05-12 08:01 · Score: 1
  
  Wouldn't 15Ghz have a hard time penetrating walls?
  1.5GHz has a "hard time" penetrating walls, too, but that's still used quite effectively for cellular networks. Both will have no trouble at all with glass windows. And lower frequencies like 800MHz will probably remain as a lower-speed fall back in the event of window-less buildings and whatnot.
  
  This sounds like more of a line-of-sight (antenna or directional dish) communication than mobile device.
  Not exactly line-of-sight per se, as wall reflections can be quite effective with very high frequencies. See the 60Ghz Wi-Di or WirelessHD standards currently in-use.
  
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3. Re:15Ghz sounds cool and all, but... by RyuuzakiTetsuya · 2014-05-12 14:03 · Score: 1
  
  2.5ghz was troublesome. 15? Shit. No.
  
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Re:1GB datacap by Anonymous Coward · 2014-05-12 07:57 · Score: 0

Watch your data cap expire in an instant
Data cap is pretty limited to the US.
Re:1GB datacap by DarwinSurvivor · 2014-05-12 09:01 · Score: 1

And Canada.
Re:1GB datacap by Anonymous Coward · 2014-05-12 09:52 · Score: 0

And some countries in Europe.
good news and bad news by Gravis+Zero · 2014-05-12 10:23 · Score: 2

the good news is that this is a great advancement in fast internet access on cellphones. the bad news is that you can only get 8 Gigabits before your phone dies.

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Good for bragging rites by Anonymous Coward · 2014-05-12 10:36 · Score: 0

Maybe but here in the US if you are outside of a major city you're lucky to get an EDGE connection. I've drove for hours with nothing but GPRS and the small town where my parents live there is no cell phone service from any carrier.
So yes it's good for bragging rites but another reason for a big F-You to the service providers in the United States that are unwilling to provide service outside of the cities.
Ericsson is not NEC by Anonymous Coward · 2014-05-12 13:12 · Score: 0

The original japanese report says NEC. How did NEC become Ericsson?
1. Re:Ericsson is not NEC by grouchomarxist · 2014-05-12 16:31 · Score: 1
  
  Which report are you referring to? The third link in the article says Ericsson.
Re:1GB datacap by Anonymous Coward · 2014-05-12 15:54 · Score: 0

And Australia...
First, 40Hz as a unit of electrical current... by ThaumaTechnician · 2014-05-12 22:47 · Score: 1

...now 'trial' as a verb? Sigh..
Re:1GB datacap by Anonymous Coward · 2014-05-13 00:51 · Score: 0

And the Philippines
"figure 7"? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-05-13 14:19 · Score: 0

What "figure 7" are you referring to?