Baku, January 1, AZERTAC
Nippon Telegraph & Telephone will build a pilot 6G network to serve the venue for the 2025 World Expo in Osaka, Nikkei has learned, with plans to commercialize the technology by around the end of the decade.
The group already has begun designing the basic infrastructure for the network, NTT West President Mitsuyoshi Kobayashi told Nikkei in a recent interview. Details will be finalized from the fiscal year starting in April.
The 6G services will be powered by NTT's Innovative Optical and Wireless Network. The infrastructure, known as IOWN, will serve Yumeshima, Osaka's artificial island that will be the site of the World Expo.
The Japan Association for the 2025 World Exposition, the group organizing the event, plans to roll out next-generation mobility services as well as a virtual expo held in a metaverse where people can participate via avatars. The sixth-generation network is expected to support such offerings.
Telecommunications networks currently make use of data centers and buildings to convert optical signals into electrical signals. But that process produces latencies and expends substantial electricity.
NTT and other Japanese companies make up just 10% of the 6G patent applications, putting them in third place. IOWN's pilot at the World Expo likely will serve as a litmus test for whether Japan can take the lead on 6G.