Tokyo, Japan - March 24, 2016 - NEC Corporation (NEC; TSE: 6701) today announced that it is contributing to NTT DOCOMO, INC.'s (DOCOMO) field trial of carrier aggregation using the 3.5GHz Time Division LTE (TD-LTE) technology. DOCOMO plans to provide its LTE-Advanced mobile communication service using the 3.5GHz TD-LTE in June 2016.

NEC began supplying high-capacity base station equipment for DOCOMO's LTE-Advanced communications service in February 2015. This time, NEC has updated software in the high-capacity base station equipment, enabling the base stations to operate with 3.5GHz TD-LTE remote radio equipment (also known as remote radio head). With this enhancement, DOCOMO will achieve carrier aggregation that combines the 3.5GHz band and the conventionally supported frequency bands to boost the speed and capacity of its LTE-Advanced mobile communication service.

Mobile operators are striving to achieve a high level of coordination between macro cells and small cells to deliver high-speed and large-capacity mobile communications. In order to efficiently operate mobile networks under such an environment, adopting the "Advanced C-RAN Architecture," that is advocated by DOCOMO, and fully utilizing carrier aggregation technologies for efficient use of frequency resources is a key.

NEC is also developing 3.5GHz TD-LTE remote radio equipment for macro cells and small cells. The equipment under development has been reduced in size through the use of highly efficient amplifiers and highly integrated components, and the improvement of thermal design, enabling flexible installation in limited site spaces. Particularly, significant size reductions have been achieved for the remote radio equipment for macro cells, which is 40% smaller than NEC's conventional model (*).

NEC's high-capacity base station equipment allows various functions of the "Advanced C-RAN Architecture" to be added to the high-capacity base station equipment through software updates, with no need to change the hardware. This feature helps to reduce capital investment of mobile network operators.

NEC also contributed to the enhancement of DOCOMO's LTE-Advanced mobile communication service by developing software that makes the high-capacity base station equipment support the "carrier aggregation technologies (3CC)." The software was installed in the high-capacity base station equipment in October 2015.

"Our LTE-Advanced service, enabled by combining the Advanced C-RAN Architecture with aggregation of TD-LTE and FDD-LTE, helps to further improve the peak rate and network stability, while enhancing user experience," said Seizo Onoe, DOCOMO's Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer. "I am very pleased that NEC promptly adapted the high-capacity base station equipment to 3CC technologies, and appreciate the great contribution it has made in realizing 370Mbps data service based on carrier aggregation using the 3.5GHz TD-LTE."

"It is a great honor to have successfully contributed to NTT DOCOMO's carrier aggregation field trial using the 3.5GHz TD-LTE," said Shunichiro Tejima, Executive Vice President, NEC Corporation. "I firmly believe that this latest enhancement will raise the user experience through improving average speed and connectivity. Going forward, NEC will continue supporting DOCOMO expand their LTE-Advanced mobile communication service and create innovative next-generation mobile communication services."

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Note

• * As of March 2, 2016, according to NEC research.

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