Japanese telecoms operator KATCH has picked Nokia to deliver industrial-grade stand-alone 5G private wireless networking to manufacturing and industrial businesses throughout Japan’s main manufacturing region.

The Aichi Prefecture is a global hub for automobile, aerospace and high-tech manufacture. Companies which manufacture in the region include Toyota, Mitsubishi, Fuji, Kawasaki, Denso and Subaru.

KATCH aims to simplify 5G private wireless deployment in the Aichi Prefecture. The company also aims to enable greater adoption of IoT, machine learning, AI and automation on the back of the roll-out of 5G private wireless networking throughout the region.

KATCH will begin the commercial launch of its private wireless network offering in Q2 2022. Initially with three base stations in the first phase, full deployment will comprise more than 100 cell sites. In addition to end-to-end 5G network infrastructure, Nokia and local systems integrator CTC will provide integration and on-going services.

Tatsuya Yamada, Executive Vice President, KATCH Network, said: “With many companies acting as beacons of manufacturing excellence, there is a huge concentration of industrial companies in Aichi Prefecture. Given Nokia’s 5G expertise we can now help Aichi-based manufacturers to benefit from reliable and secure, high-bandwidth networking, which delivers the hyper-fast connectivity and low latency essential for Industry 4.0 use cases.”

Donny Janssens, Head of Customer Team, Nokia Enterprise Japan, said: “Private wireless networking is a crucial component of manufacturing’s digital transformation. By offering high-performance 5G networking to businesses locally, KATCH will play an important role in strengthening the region’s leadership for manufacturing innovation.”