TOKYO, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Three major Japanese mobile carriers and e-commerce corporation Rakuten Inc. were approved by Japan's telecom ministry on Wednesday to get mobile phone frequency bands for 5G services before launching in full scale in 2020, local media reported.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications decided to allocate the 5G frequencies after reviewing operational proposals by NTT Docomo Inc., KDDI Corp., SoftBank Corp. and Rakuten, taking into the opinions of an advisory council as well.
KDDI and SoftBank plan to start trials later this year and will begin commercial publicity next March, followed by NTT Docomo later in spring.
KDDI and NTT Docomo are also planning trial streaming services with 5G technology for the Rugby World Cup to be held from September in Japan.
Rakuten, a newcomer into the mobile market, plans to start 4G services in October this year and 5G in June 2020. It is currently fast constructing its network across the country to provide both 4G and 5G telecommunications services.
In total, the four companies' sum of investment in 5G infrastructure will amount to 1.6 trillion yen (14 billion U.S. dollars) over the next five years, targeting to make the services available nationwide, according to the Japanese telecom ministry.
The 5G services, the next-generation mobile telecommunications technology, will provide users with data streaming about 100 times faster than the current 4G networks can top.
