This commercial service expansion by NTT East follows the companies’ ongoing collaboration since the announcement of NTT East’s selection of Samsung as its private 5G network solutions vendor in March 2022. The companies have completed several demonstrations and tests to optimize Samsung’s private 5G network solutions for NTT East customers, leading up to this successful commercialization.

“We are excited to expand our collaboration with NTT East in the buildout of robust and reliable private 5G networks in Japan,” said Satoshi Iwao, Vice President and Head of Network Division at Samsung Electronics Japan. “Samsung’s end-to-end 5G network solutions deliver on the capabilities required to meet the unique requirements of each enterprise. We look forward to continue working together with NTT East to bring enhanced connectivity to power next-generation solutions that help businesses build a smarter future.”

Samsung’s private 5G network solutions provided to NTT East include its indoor and outdoor radios, baseband units and the companies’ advanced core solution — cloud-native 5G Macro Core. These solutions support the mid-band (4.7GHz) spectrum dedicated to private 5G networks (Local 5G) in Japan. With Samsung’s cloud-native 5G Macro Core, operators can build and run applications on cloud-based environments for improved agility and scalability, being able to accelerate time to market in order to respond to customer demands more quickly.

Real-world use cases powered by Samsung’s 5G solutions will span across industries including agriculture, automotive, construction, education, healthcare, manufacturing, telecommunications and transportation. 5G-powered use cases will include: Autonomous Guided Vehicle (AGV) to enhance work efficiency at manufacturing facilities, self-driving tractors to support smart agriculture, multi-angle live streaming to enhance eSports experiences and AI-based visual inspection systems using wearable cameras at construction sites.

Samsung also brought together various industry-leaders for collaboration on this project — including Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) — to foster an interoperable approach. HPE provided its 5G core subscriber data management cloud-native network functions.

“We are excited to collaborate with Samsung and NTT East for Japan’s Local 5G project,” said Tom Craig, Vice President and General Manager of HPE Communications and Technology Group (CTG). “Local 5G is a strategic area of focus for HPE, and we have an extensive 5G and private communications portfolio of software and infrastructure solutions. Our solutions are built to optimize collaboration between service providers, system integrators and enterprises, providing flexible deployment models and simplified operations.”

Beyond Japan, Samsung has taken a key role in the deployment of private 5G networks in other markets across the globe, including Korea and the U.S. In Korea, Samsung supported the launch of the first private 5G network deployment at Naver’s new headquarters and was also recently selected by various government agencies (in energy, water resource management and safety fields) and private institutions (in medical services and education fields) for their private 5G network expansion. In the U.S., Samsung delivered 5G FWA solutions to expand rural broadband coverage and bridge the digital divide and also provided CBRS solutions to enhance connectivity on campuses and other enterprises.

Samsung has pioneered the successful delivery of 5G end-to-end solutions including chipsets, radios and core. Through ongoing research and development, Samsung drives the industry to advance 5G networks with its market-leading product portfolio from RAN and Core to private network solutions and AI-powered automation tools. The company is currently providing network solutions to mobile operators that deliver connectivity to hundreds of millions of users around the world.

This announcement follows a series of tests completed last year to verify Samsung’s private 5G network solutions on NTT East’s network, demonstrating the capabilities required to build an optimized private 5G network that meets specific enterprise needs.

Leveraging 5G SA

This month, the companies successfully completed a 5G Standalone (SA) technological verification, achieving increased uplink throughput by optimizing uplink and downlink allocation ratio in NTT East Research Facility. This improved uplink performance will be a key enabler for advanced services that require high data transmission — such as live video monitoring, connected drones and automated vehicles.

For the technological verification, Samsung provided its end-to-end 5G solutions — including its outdoor radio units, baseband unit and 5G SA Core — to deliver the highest standards of quality, interoperability and stability. Samsung also used HPE’s software to ensure security in the network.

This verification was conducted using NTT East’s 4.8 – 4.9GHz spectrum, which is a frequency band dedicated for the Local 5G networks initiative in Japan — a government program that enables enterprises to deploy private 5G networks using the country’s assigned frequency band, independent of traditional mobile networks.

“We are excited to advance in accelerating our private 5G network expansion in Japan,” said Riaki Hoshino, Senior Vice President & Executive Officer at NTT East. “In continuing our collaboration with Samsung, we look to deliver the most innovative 5G services and transformative experiences possible for our enterprise customers, tailored to their specific needs.”

“Private 5G networks, powered by Samsung’s comprehensive portfolio of 5G solutions, will create a new wave of opportunities for enterprises, driven by improved productivity and superior connectivity,” said Woojune Kim, Executive Vice President, Head of Global Sales & Marketing, Networks Business at Samsung Electronics. “We’re proud to support NTT East in the expansion of Local 5G, which will impact a range of industries including agriculture, manufacturing and transportation.

NTT East is a leading telecommunications company, providing services in the east area of Japan.

Samsung has pioneered the successful delivery of 5G end-to-end solutions including chipsets, radios and core. Through ongoing research and development, Samsung drives the industry to advance 5G networks with its market-leading product portfolio from fully virtualized RAN and Core to private network solutions and AI-powered automation tools. The company is currently providing network solutions to mobile operators that deliver connectivity to hundreds of millions of users around the world.