ZTE kick-starts global race to 5G with advanced equipment geared for deployment from 2018

Reading Time:2 minutes

ZTE said it is targeting the third quarter of 2018 for the trial release of 5-G networks. Photo: AFP

Published: 5:45pm, 28 Feb 2017Updated: 11:46am, 1 Mar 2017

ZTE Corp, the world’s fourth largest telecommunications equipment supplier, is poised to kick-start the global race to roll-out 5G networks with advanced products ready for trial deployment from the third quarter next year.

Shenzhen-based ZTE said on Tuesday that its new range of equipment would enable existing 4G mobile services providers to reduce the time to build 5G-ready networks, according to a statement released on the sidelines of the annual Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

These proprietary “Pre5G” solutions enable operators to emulate the performance of 5G networks on existing 4G infrastructure, and are easily upgradable to 5G in future when the universal standards for the mobile system are completed, according to ZTE.

The announcement came a day after ZTE and Huawei Technologies joined an international contingent of mobile communications companies that has called for the swift completion of “5G New Radio” specifications, which are being developed by the telecommunications association known as the 3rd Generation Partnership Project as part of future universal 5G standards.

That would enable large-scale trials and deployments as early as 2019 on the sub-6 gigahertz spectrum bands, as well as the so-called millimetre wave (mmWave) spectrum bands between 30GHz and 300GHz, geared for 5G mobile services.

An attendee uses a smartphone to take a photograph of a Axon 7 smartphone, manufactured by ZTE Corp., on the opening day of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, on February 27, 2017. Photo: Bloomberg

The new mmWave and sub-6Ghz mobile base stations launched by ZTE in Barcelona use so-called beam tracking, beam forming, massive multiple input, multiple output and other key technologies behind future 5G networks.