Two Japanese LTE Network Launches Due This Friday

Japan’s Softbank and KDDI have both announced that they will launch LTE services this coming Friday (21st Sept), on the same day that they start sales of the LTE enabled iPhone 5.

Currently only NTT DoCoMo offers conventional LTE services, although Softbank has been offering a TD-LTE service which was unique to the country.

Softbank Mobile said that its FDD-LTE based service will cover all cities by the end of the year, with theoretical speeds of either 75Mbps or 37.5Mbps depending on location.

KDDI said that it would offer a theoretical peak download speed of upto 75Mbps, with an upgrade to 112.5Mbps next year. Coverage would be initially in the main cities, and then expanded to 96% of the population by next April.

Softbank Mobile said that its FDD-LTE based service will cover all cities by the end of the year, with theoretical speeds of either 75Mbps or 37.5Mbps depending on location.