Japanese carriers weigh shared infrastructure for 5G mmWave coverage
Japan’s four major mobile operators have signed a memorandum of understanding to examine 5G millimeter-wave infrastructure and technical designs for expanding coverage. The effort does not yet include a specific network-sharing plan. An Omdia analyst said shared infrastructure could lower costs, ease site approvals, and help address the dense deployment needs of mmWave.
Japan’s four national carriers—KDDI, NTT Docomo, SoftBank, and Rakuten Mobile—have agreed to jointly examine millimeter-wave radio infrastructure and possible technical blueprints. Their memorandum does not commit them to any specific sharing arrangement.
The inquiry will cover radio sites, repeaters, and supporting equipment, asking how installed infrastructure might serve multiple operators while each continues its own rollout. Omdia’s Remy Pascal noted that millimeter-wave signals travel short distances and are easily blocked, requiring many sites; sharing physical locations, even without sharing active gear, might reduce costs and simplify approvals.
If the study leads to practical sharing, mobile users in crowded venues and urban hotspots could see more reliable high-capacity coverage, while operators may face lower deployment costs. Municipalities and venue owners might handle fewer separate approval requests. Businesses relying on dense data traffic could benefit from improved capacity. However, because no concrete sharing plan exists yet, any societal effect remains uncertain and dependent on the study’s recommendations and later implementation.