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...

Just 7% of Japan's land mass is made up of 'intensively built-up' areas and is inhabited by almost 60% of Japan's 125 million-strong population. Comparatively, over half of the nation's land mass is 'moderately built-up', but is inhabited by 15% of the population.   Read more...

NTT DOCOMO is Japan's leading mobile operator, but it is also a key player on the world stage in 5G innovation.  With the government gearing up for the country's first spectrum auction, the operator has urged against giving excessive weight to the economic value of spectrum. Read more...

SoftBank and its US segment, Sprint, seek to lead the pack in 5G rollout, with Sprint preparing to launch a US 5G mobile network using 2.5 GHz in the first half of 2019 while the FCC reviews a proposed merger between Sprint and T-Mobile. In Japan the 5G focus is… Read more...

Steady progress is being made in releasing 700 MHz for mobile with 30 auctions anticipated over the next three years. Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Americas are the furthest advanced but few definite plans have been made in Africa or central Asian countries. Read more...

Japan will be hosting the Olympic Games in 2020 and the country plans to use the event as a showcase for new technologies such as 5G. As a result, both its government and its operators are very active in testing the technology. Read more...

Japan's SoftBank and its US segment Sprint "see tremendous opportunity in mobile 5G, massive machine type communications, and ultra-reliable and low latency communications." Sprint is aiming for commercial 5G rollout in late 2019, SoftBank in 2020. Read more...

ZTE is trialling pre-commercial 5G technologies both below 6 GHz and in the millimetre waves Read more...