Ericsson selected as Super 3G/LTE vendor for NTT DoCoMo

Ericsson has been selected by NTT DoCoMo for its Long-Term Evolution (LTE) base station development project, the next evolution in mobile network standards, as defined by 3GPP (the Third-Generation Partnership Project).

LTE offers a superior user experience, enhancing such applications as mobile video, blogging, advanced gaming, rich multimedia telephony and professional services. It also interoperates with existing cellular systems.

Ericsson and NTT DoCoMo have long cooperated in the areas of research and development, and standardization. Since 1992, Ericsson has delivered PDC base stations to NTT DoCoMo and, more recently, W-CDMA base stations for the operator’s FOMA network.

Ericsson has previously demonstrated LTE in Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) mode, with speeds of up to 160Mbps, and for the first time recently demonstrated LTE in both FDD and Time Division Duplex (TDD) mode on the same base station platform.

NTT DoCoMo is the world’s leading mobile communications company. It serves over 53 mln customers, including 42 mln people subscribing to FOMA, launched in 2001 as the world’s first 3G-mobile service based on W-CDMA.

DoCoMo also offers a wide variety of leading-edge mobile multimedia services, including i-mode, the world’s most popular mobile e-mail/internet service, which is used by more than 47 mln people. With the addition of credit-card and other e-wallet functions, DoCoMo mobile phones have become highly versatile tools for daily life.