Nokia has said it is building a “strategic partnership ecosystem” to bring private LTE and 5G networks to industrial and government customers in Japan.
Spectrum for local LTE and 5G will be released in Japan at the end of 2019 for enterprise use. Nokia expects government agencies, manufacturing plants, utility companies, and rail and aviation operators to take up the option of local spectrum for private wireless in Japan.
Nokia has joined with five industrial companies in Japan ahead of the release of local spectrum, in a bid to target various vertical sectors. Its partners will sell Nokia’s private LTE and 5G gear to end customers, as a platform for Industry 4.0 applications.
These are NS Solutions for factory IoT, Marubeni for global IoT, Internet Initiative Japan for MVNOs, Equinix for multi-cloud and global data centres, and Hitachi Kokusai Electric for smart social infrastructure and smart cities with video solutions.
John Harrington, head of Nokia in Japan, said: “Our aim is to better serve the increasing needs for private wireless in Japan. With spectrum availability now opening up in Japan, Nokia is bringing forth a unique combination of technology, services and partnerships to help its customers deploy end-to-end solutions that will jump-start their digital transformations.”
Nokia’s private wireless offer for industries includes an advanced LTE network dedicated to business-critical machines, sensors and workers. Nokia made clear the latest version of LTE – which it refers to as 4.9G – will support most digital applications in the industrial space.
It is available as a full-service wrap, including spectrum, edge computer, access points, applications and user equipment, or as a modular solution for enterprises that want to build and operate their own private networks.
Both versions comes with IP/MPLS, optical, wireless backhaul, and passive optical LAN (POL) solutions.
Nokia announced its deal with Hitachi Kokusai Electric in Japan in November, alongside a deal in Africa with mobile satellite provider Globalstar to enable enterprises to deploy mobile-based applications in a dedicated spectrum band.
Japan’s unlicensed sXGP (Shared Extended Global Platform), in 1.9 GHz, has seen initial private networking deployments in corporate campuses, golf courses, race tracks, stadiums, airports, and warehouses.
Japan joins Sweden, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Australia to variously allocate spectrum for private 5G networks in the 3.7 GHz, 26 GHz and 28 GHz frequency bands.
