NTT DOCOMO is Japan's largest telecommunications company, now serving over 80 million customers, as of its 2020 annual report, with advanced wireless networks, including a nationwide LTE network and an LTE-Advanced network. It plans to roll out 5G networks in the 2020s. Read more...

While led by the US, many nations in Europe, and to a lesser degree the Asia Pacific, have moved to ban equipment from Huawei and ZTE. Many of these actions fall short of outright bans, although measures such as strict security requirements and increased government intervention powers effectively constitute de… Read more...

This table shows the actions taken against Huawei in 40 countries. Read more...

Japan has a tradition of close cooperation between industry and government in the mobile industry that, while not fractured, is undergoing some creative tension. Read more...

NTT DOCOMO, which in April 2019 was assigned spectrum in Japan in 3.7 GHz, 4.5 GHz and 28 GHz, remains a 5G pioneer.  DOCOMO now services over 78 million mobile customers in Japan, and continues to build out its 4G LTE network. Read more...

Japanese operator SoftBank was assigned new spectrum in the 3.7 GHz and 28 GHz bands for 5G, and is focused on high-altitude platforms for the Internet of Things and 5G.  The proposed merger of its US segment Sprint with T-Mobile looks set to be approved, while Sprint is deploying 5G… Read more...

There is no globally harmonized spectrum for IoT, and there is no indication that this situation will change. IoT spectrum considerations therefore remain in the hands of national regulators. Read more...

A lack of national-level spectrum policy is stymieing the development of the commercial drone industry. This is despite the progressive identification of spectrum for Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) at the international-level and ongoing innovation supporting innumerable use cases for commercial drones. In this second note of a two-part series on… Read more...

The Indian operator is frequently name-checked as a model for successfully breaking into a mobile market with its straight-to-4G, data-only strategy. But Reliance Jio Infocomm looks like a one-off: finding another visionary, billionaire backer like Mukesh Ambani, willing to invest a significant chunk of his capital in spectrum and infrastructure… Read more...

Japan will be hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2020 and the country plans to use the event as a showcase for new technologies such as 5G. Japan is one of the countries interested in using 28 GHz for 5G, even though the band was not selected for further… Read more...