TOKYO (WiMAX Day). The Softbank Group announced today that it has been granted a temporary testing license for 2.5 GHz spectrum from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication (MIC). Softbank had intended to begin testing WiMAX in September of this year.

Softbank stated that it will begin WiMAX trials immediately in the Edogawa Ku Kasai area of Tokyo. This area is located in the east of Tokyo and covers 49 km2, with some 648,000 inhabitants. The population of Edogawa Ku Kasai is predominantly under the age of 39.

According a Softbank press release, the trial will deploy five bases stations on existing platforms where Softbank already have installed base stations for W-CDMA. Equipment for the trial is being supplied by Motorola, and 25 prototype Motorola handsets will be used in the trial.

The trial will appraise the performance of WiMAX based on the IEEE 802.16e-2005 standard in an urban setting. The trial will also appraise the MIMO (multi-input, multi-output) capabilities of WiMAX, and its interaction with multi-antenna telecommunications systems. Meanwhile, specific technical testing will focus on the verification of frequency utilisation and the efficiency and speed of hand-over between base stations. During the trial, Softbank intend to test video streaming, VoIP and video phone services.

Concurrent trials in Japan
While operators in Japan are anxious to launch WiMAX services, many are delayed because the MIC has yet to issue formal long-term licenses for 2.5 GHz. Thus companies have been forced to use temporary testing licenses.

Other GSM operators testing WiMAX include NTT DoCoMo, who is testing in the Yoyogi area of Tokyo, and KDDI has also announced a similar trial in Osaka. In addition, companies such as Yozan and ACCA Networks also have been testing WiMAX in Yokohama and Tokyo. Earlier this year, Yozan and Softbank announced that they would jointly deploy base stations for WiMAX using the 3G tower infrastructure of Softbank.

Ubiquitous society
Softbank further stated in its announcement that following successful trials, WiMAX will become the focus of its commercial wireless broadband business, leading to the actualisation of its intention to contribute to a society where broadband use is truely ubiquitous.

This echoes an earlier statement in June by Junichi Miyakawa, executive vice president of Vodafone K.K., who said Softbank “has been preparing to provide innovative new services to launch full-scale wireless broadband services and to realize a true ubiquitous society.” Softbank acquired Vodafone K.K. from Vodafone Group in April 2006 for $15 billion.