SoftBank Mobile, Japan’s fastest growing mobile operator, announced in September 2011 its plans to deploy its LTE TDD-compatible AXGP commercial network through its sister company, Wireless City Planning (WCP). When completed, it will represent the world’s largest LTE TDD-compatible deployment, providing offload for some of the busiest and most complicated urban areas in the world.
WCP CTO Yoshioki Chika discusses the expectations for this LTE TDD-compatible network and the requirements for infrastructure and device vendors.
In a matured mobile broadband market like Japan, the major challenge in a data-rich environment is capacity. Softbank already has a nationwide 3G network, but it has been under heavy traffic pressure thanks to the mobile data surge, particularly from indoor data traffic (accounting for 70% of the total).
Mr. Chika also thinks that small-cell and interference cancellation solutions (such as beamforming), as well as cloud-based base stations, will be key to tackling the capacity challenge. He looks forward to Huawei’s technology support in all of the aforementioned areas. Looking at the big ecosystem, Mr. Chika will also welcome low-priced smartphones (priced under USD100) that will boost global MBB development.
