NTT Docomo moves up Japan-wide 5G to June 2020, offers early access venturebeat.com

Shortly after smaller rival Softbank said it is accelerating its Japanese 5G network deployment by two years, targeting 60% population coverage by 2023, top carrier NTT Docomo confirmed that it’s also pushing up its 5G rollout plans.
“We are marking Friday as the day we begin our full-fledged 5G services,” said NTT Docomo president Kazuhiro Yoshizawa (via Japan Times), though calling its initial offering “full-fledged” is more than a stretch.
Commercial 5G service for paying customers is still expected to commence in spring 2020, just ahead of July’s Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo.
NTT Docomo’s early public testing coincides with the launch of the iPhone 11 family, which is expected to be Apple’s last flagship phone without 5G.
iPhones have proved to be extremely popular in Japan, singlehandedly buoying rivals SoftBank and KDDI before NTT Docomo obtained rights to sell the phone.