Chinese telecom equipment major, ZTE is today at the forefront of global 5G developments. The company has achieved several landmarks over the last few months, which have cemented its position as an innovator in the 5G space.
ZTE’s growing profile as 5G technology leadership is especially evident in the ongoing trial with China Mobile. With 849 million mobile customers, China Mobile Communications Corporation (CMCC) is the world’s largest mobile network. After taking the lead in 4G, China Mobile is trying to establish one of the earliest 5G commercial networks in the world. ZTE is a longstanding partner of China Mobile and is supporting the telco’s 5G journey with its cutting-edge technological solutions.
“China Mobile’s 5G trial is the world’s earliest 3GPP standard compliant test, and it is a testimony to our expertise that we are partnering with them on this prestigious project. Currently, ZTE and CMCC are jointly establishing a 5G field trial in Guangzhou city for Proof of Concept system verification,” says Cui Li, Vice President, ZTE Corporation.
China Mobile plans to launch commercial 5G services by 2020 and has a clear roadmap to meet this goal. The first phase of the trial involves implementing POC system verification in the cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, and Jiangsu. The second phase is scheduled to start in 2018 and includes starting end-to-end Terminal and system interoperablily test (IoT) and large-scale field trials, with at least 20 sites in every city. Finally, in the last phase of trial China Mobile plans to conduct the pre-commercial 5G trial in 2019 with hundreds of sites in every city leading to around 10,000 base stations in 2020. While the first phase focuses on critical technology validation, the second phase is centered on product validation.