Japan’s NTT DoCoMo has announced the successful completion of initial field tests of long term evolution (LTE) wireless technology, claiming data transmission rates of 120 Mbps in an urban setting. Working in partnership with local manufacturer Fujitsu, the carrier has installed a pilot 4×4 multiple input, multiple output LTE network in a test zone in the northern Japanese city of Sapporo in Hokkaido, using 10 MHz of spectrum. The trial network, using prototype LTE base stations developed jointly by the firms, transmitted data to a device at rates of around 120 Mbps. DoCoMo estimates that this will be equivalent to 240 Mbps throughput using the 20 MHz maximum bandwidth that LTE allows.
