NEC and Japan-based telecom NTT DOCOMO have made further progress in their efforts to trial experimental 5G connectivity technology. Together with Tobu Railway Co., the companies successfully transmitted high-definition video to a fast-moving train.

It’s the culmination of a long-term effort. Last spring the companies transmitted 3G data to a car moving at over 300km per hour, a speed meant to mimic those of high-speed trains. Now, they’ve done it with a real train, announcing that they sent both 4K and 8K video to a 5G mobile station inside a train moving at 90km per hour. The video feeds were also transmitted to 40 smartphones onboard the train via a wireless LAN.

The companies are not alone in this kind of experimentation. Another Japanese telecom, KDDI, worked with Samsung to transmit 4K and 8K video to train moving at over 100km per hour in a 5G test conducted toward the end of 2017.

All of these efforts reflect the increasing activity around 5G technology ahead of its large-scale emergence, which is anticipated to begin this year.

For their part, NEC and NTT DOCOMO also recently announced that they had trialled facial recognition technology over a 5G network, pointing the way to even more innovative uses of the emerging cellular technology.