Samsung Electronics has partnered with Japanese telecom operator KDDI to complete the first demonstrated 5G transmission on a high-speed train.
The joint trial took place on a train traveling at speeds above 100 km/h (over 60 mph) along a route where the distance between two stations was roughly 1.5 km (nearly 1 mile). Although that span is shorter than the long-distance coverage commuters will eventually expect, the test proves high-speed, reliable 5G connectivity can be delivered to fast-moving vehicles.
During the demonstration in Saitama, near Tokyo, the teams achieved successful downlink and uplink handovers and recorded peak throughput of 1.7 Gbps. Because the 5G standard is still being finalized, KDDI deployed Samsung’s pre-commercial end-to-end solution made up of a 5G customer premises device (CPE) router, radio access unit (5G radio), virtualized RAN, and virtualized core network.
Yoshiaki Uchida, Senior Managing Executive Officer at KDDI, said the experiment opens the door to new 5G-driven business models for railways. He noted the trial’s success at everyday locations such as a moving train and station is an important milestone that suggests commercial 5G rollout is approaching. Uchida added that to meet KDDI’s goal of launching 5G services by 2020, the company will continue running real-world scenario experiments and testing diverse use cases together with Samsung.
Tested use cases demonstrated how high-speed mobile connectivity can serve both operators and passengers. The teams uploaded 4K video captured by a camera mounted on the train while passengers downloaded an 8K video through the on-board CPE, illustrating the potential for immersive media and content delivery even at high speeds.
Youngky Kim, President and Head of Networks Business at Samsung Electronics, emphasized the transformative potential of 5G for everyday life. He attributed the demonstration’s success to joint research with KDDI and said the companies will continue collaborating on next-generation networks and applications. Their ongoing work will explore different spectrum bands, evolving radio technologies, and new business models and services enabled by advanced mobile connectivity.
This demonstration is an encouraging step toward enabling robust, low-latency, high-bandwidth connections on moving platforms such as trains. Continued testing and refinement will be required to extend coverage across longer track sections, optimize handovers between cells at higher speeds, and validate operations under varied environmental and traffic conditions. Still, achieving gigabit-class throughput and reliable handover on a train in motion shows 5G’s promise for transforming onboard entertainment, operational systems, safety features, and passenger services.
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