SoftBank 5G Millimeter Wave Test Hits 2.38 Gbps

TOKYO, Japan — SoftBank Corp announced Tuesday that it conducted a fixed wireless access test using millimeter wave spectrum on its commercial 5G network, achieving download speeds of 2.38 gigabits per second and upload speeds of 541 megabits per second.

The test was conducted at a facility in Yokohama City using spectrum in the 28 GHz band between 29.1 and 29.5 GHz, according to the company.

Customer premises equipment installed on a rooftop was connected to commercial millimeter wave base stations.

SoftBank stated that it operated the millimeter wave spectrum for both uplink and downlink transmission, independent of fourth-generation networks or Sub-6 5G frequencies.

Previous deployments utilized EN-DC or NR-DC configurations that combined multiple frequency bands, the company said.

Multiple devices were connected during the test, and aggregate throughput reportedly remained constant across all connected devices, according to the company.

The test utilized 64QAM modulation and 2×2 MIMO for uplink transmission, combining beamforming from customer premises equipment with multi-antenna reception at the base station, the company said.

According to SoftBank, the test used existing commercial base stations and network infrastructure without additional relay equipment beyond customer premises units.

The company reported that communication quality was comparable to that of fiber-optic connections when outdoor equipment was connected to indoor networks.

Potential applications identified by SoftBank include government infrastructure, educational facilities, event venues, and industrial sites.

Ericsson Japan provided the base station equipment, while Kyocera Corp supplied the customer premises equipment, according to the company.