Samsung to Supply 5G Equipment to Japan
01 October, 2019
Samsung has secured a deal to supply 5G equipment to Japan's No. 2 mobile service provider, KDDI. The deal comes even as tensions between the two governments have spilled over into trade.
Samsung already supplies 5G equipment to U.S. telecoms.
According to industry insiders, Samsung will supply W2.4 trillion worth of 5G equipment to KDDI until 2024, or about half of KDDI's entire 5G equipment investment (US$1=W1,199). The rest will be supplied by Ericsson and Nokia. Samsung will supply equipment for networks in and around Tokyo.
Japan plans to establish 53,626 5G base stations throughout the country by 2023.
Samsung has been preparing for the deal since 2015 by joining hands with KDDI to develop related technologies. Japan will start offering commercial 5G services in March next year ahead of the Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
NTT DoCoMo (ranked No. 1), SoftBank (No. 3) and Rakuten Mobile (No. 4) have also been allocated 5G frequencies. They reportedly plan to invest W1.6 trillion yen over the next five years to establish the networks.
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