Leading Japanese operator NTT Docomo has used the MWC 2025 event to showcase “fundamental advances” in next-generation communications technologies and services that will be needed to support almost unprecedented demand on network infrastructure over the course of the next decade.
As it looks to draw on its expertise in information processing and computer graphics to deliver a wide variety of metaverse services, Toppan has inked an agreement with NTT Docomo to jointly develop communication services for the forthcoming 6G era.
Under the terms of the deal agreement, Toppan will integrate its metaverse and advanced expression capabilities with Docomo’s Feel Tech platform, designed to extend human sensory experiences through 6G networks. The two companies will collaborate in the development and provision of services in the fields of education, skill transmission and online shopping.
The first step in the process will be the integration of Feel Tech with Toppan’s metaverse app Metapa, which features educational content for museums designed for interactive learning. Development discussions will commence in April 2025.
By incorporating Feel Tech’s sensory sharing capabilities into Metapa, the two firms said that they will look to companies aim to develop next-generation content that will allow users to experience the texture of materials and tactile sensations of artists, enhancing art education through direct interaction.
Also in the realm of future 6G services, NTT Docomo said that – working with parent N TT Corporation (NTT) – it has demonstrated the effectiveness and feasibility of in-network computing (INC), an architecture that integrates and coordinates computing resources for services such as AI and mobile networks to enable end-to-end quality control, ensuring low latency and bandwidth usage. The demonstration was based on the Inclusive Core concept for the 6G/IOWN next-gen networking project.
In a proof of concept conducted in collaboration with Nokia, the GSMA-defined Open Gateway/Camara API was used to develop and implement technologies for controlling network routing based on mobile network conditions. Additionally, new technologies were developed and implemented that enable connection and coordinated control between user communication devices and servers positioned near the user, allowing on-demand computing services to be provided according to user needs.
As a result, the demonstration confirmed that quality requirements spanning both network and computing domains can be rapidly achieved through API control based on user requests, said NTT. Moreover, application of the INC architecture in real-time video data transmission and AI analysis is said to have the potential to achieve accuracy of 90%, which is the AI model’s performance limit.
In a test of existing technology, NTT Docomo revealed that it has worked with Space Compass to complete the world’s first successful establishment of wireless data communication with a terrestrial smartphone using a small fixed-wing type high-altitude platform stations (HAPS) aircraft flying in the stratosphere at an altitude of 18km or more.
As part of the experiment that took place in February 2025, in Laikipia County, Republic of Kenya, radio waves transmitted from a terrestrial LTE base station was connected to a terrestrial gateway station, with information and data transmitted to a small fixed-wing HAPS aircraft to and from a terrestrial smartphone via a communication device equipped on a HAPS at an altitude of approximately 20km using a non-regenerative relay technology method.
As a result, a throughput of 4.66Mbps or more was confirmed in forward link communication from the terrestrial gateway station to the smartphone relayed by the HAPS. In addition, a technology was implemented to direct the centre of the beam from the HAPS aircraft circling in the stratosphere to a fixed point on the ground to form communication coverage in a certain area, and it was confirmed in a ground test area that the radio waves returned from the HAPS could be normally received by the smartphone.
Space Compass and Docomo will continue to promote the development of HAPS with the aim of commercialising it in 2026 and will work on developing a space radio access network (RAN) that will achieve ultra-extended coverage to all places, including the sky, sea and space in what it calls the “beyond 5G” era.
