‘Pre-5G’ initiatives include massive MIMO, UDN and MUSA
BARCELONA, Spain – Chinese vendor ZTE said it expects to market “pre-5G” technology in certain parts of Asia and Europe this year.
“This year, ‘pre-5G’ is the key technology,” said Zhang Jianguo, GM of ZTE’s wireless product operation division, just ahead of this week’s Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona, Spain. According to a previous report, ZTE expects to commercially launch the technology in at least 10 countries in Asia and Europe.
ZTE explained the technology is an intermediate step between “4G” and “5G” technology designed to support network speeds four- to five-times faster than current 4G connections. The ZTE initiative include massive multiple-input/multiple-output antenna technology, ultra-dense networks and multi-user shared access.
ZTE said it carried out a commercial test of MIMO technology with China Mobile in November 2015, and completed a field trial of MIMO technology with Japanese mobile operator SoftBank in Tokyo late last year. The MIMO base stations are also said to work with existing LTE infrastructure and user terminals.
Jianguo said “pre-5G” massive MIMO base stations will be commercially available in China during the second half of this year. The vendor claims to have won more than 240 LTE-based evolved packet core commercial contracts worldwide at the end of last year, and now has presence in 80% of the markets that have invested in LTE networks.
Jianguo said the company’s main focus in 2016 is to improve customer satisfaction in the markets where it already operates with improved network quality and service. ZTE also plans to optimize its market position through differentiated solutions and improve marketing capabilities as well as expand service offering in the enterprise and “Internet of Things” segments.
ZTE said its LTE products shipments accounted for 30% of the global market in 2015. Last year, ZTE entered 40 new markets, claiming to have acquired market share in Western Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and South Asia.
