ZTE, SoftBank announce 5G trial

NEW DELHI: ZTE Corporation said that it has signed an agreement with SoftBank Corp., a subsidiary of SoftBank Group Corp for a 5G trial over sub6GHz spectrum at 4.5GHz across metropolitan areas in Tokyo.

For this trial, ZTE will provide state-of-the-art 5G end-to-end network solutions and will work together with SoftBank to verify the performance of 5G technologies under real world conditions.

"SoftBank has already started joint research and development (R&D) with ZTE on key 5G technology, massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), which has been commercially deployed in its live 4G network since the second half of 2016. Based on their experience from the commercial network, SoftBank and ZTE are planning to further explore leveraging this technology in the 5G era," a statement said.

ZTE Chief Scientist, Dr Xiang Jiying, said: “We have a long term partnership with SoftBank in key 5G technologies such as massive MIMO, and we are pleased to expand that work to accelerate 5G new radio (NR) readiness. As a global leading provider of M-ICT mobile technologies, ZTE is making substantial investments in 5G and cooperating with industry partners to promote the maturity of the 5G ecosystem. We are confident that ZTE will be one of the first vendors to deliver end-to-end 5G solutions for our customers.”