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All eyes are on NTT DoCoMo as recent press releases on how they achieved downlink speeds of 240Mbps during trials were hard to miss.

Japanese data traffic is continuing to increase significantly, with 3G traffic now double the traffic that is experienced on the 2G network. Over 80% of NTT DoCoMo's customers have 3G handsets and with a market share over 40%, it is undoubtedly putting pressure on the current network and it seems that DoCoMo can't get their hands on LTE soon enough!

NTT DoCoMo's "Super 3G" is its own internal project, but is essentially identical to LTE and should allow a smooth introduction to 4G and with innovative personalised services to match.

Speaking on behalf of NTT DoCoMo was the President and CEO of NTT DoCoMo Labs Europe, Dr Toru Otsu who stressed that along with lower latency, higher capacity, improvement in spectral efficiency, cost efficiency and an all IP core, further solutions for the backhaul are still required.

One thing is certain, NTT DoCoMo have clearly been very busy. With their own trials showing that with 2x2 MIMO's, 150Mbps peak downlink speeds can be achieved and with a 4x4 MIMO on a 20MHz channel, 240Mbps peak downlink speeds can be achieved. And just for fun, using a 12x12 MIMO and a 100MHz channel gave a downlink speed of 5Gbps!

Dr Otsu declared that DoCoMo will not deploy HSPA Evolved like other operators such as Mobilkom in Austria and M1 in Singapore.  These operators have recently chosen this intermediate upgrade before deploying LTE, when it is commercially required.

It seems that all systems are go, anticipating the imminent completion of the field trials. Research has already started on IMT-Advanced/4G testing. DoCoMo have also re-branded with a new 'Superman' like logo, no doubt to reflect their "Super 3G" network.

So will they deploy LTE before the end of 2009? "The R&D section has been asked to be ready for Q4 2009" was the humble reply.

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