KDDI, the second-largest mobile operator in Japan, and South Korea-based Samsung completed a 5G field trial using the 28GHz band at Okinawa Cellular Stadium, a 30,000-person capacity baseball venue in Japan.

In a statement, the companies said the trial used Samsung’s 5G end-to-end capabilities, which included a virtualised core and RAN, one of the smallest 5G access units and multiple prototype 5G tablet devices. The test showcased a live feed of 4K video content downloaded and streamed simultaneously on 5G tablets running on mmWave spectrum.

Samsung’s 5G access units featuring beam-forming technology were installed on a light tower, enabling tablets placed on seats in specific areas of the stadium to access the video.

Yoshiaki Uchida, senior managing executive officer at KDDI, said: “The trial is solid evidence of our potential to generate new use cases that will take the user experience in sports stadiums to new heights in the 5G era. It is exciting to see how the technology will play out at crowded events to result in the discovery of new business models.”

Youngky Kim, president and head of networks business at Samsung, said: “Through our collaboration with KDDI, we will stay committed to exploring 5G-driven business models that can be applied in diverse high-demand locations based on a wide range of methods.”

In December 2017 the two companies achieved a peak speed of 1.7Gb/s on a train travelling at 100km/h over a 1.5km stretch of track using pre-commercial 5G equipment.

Prior to the test, in October 2017, Fumio Watanabe, chairman of KDDI Research, said obtaining spectrum licences from the Japanese government would be the biggest obstacle to meeting its goal of launching 5G service in 2020.