In addition to 5G, the deals cover IoT, cloud, network virtualization and CloudRAN
Spanish telecom operator Telefónica has signed “5G” development agreements with Chinese vendors ZTE and Huawei.
The European telco inked a memorandum of understanding with ZTE for the development of 5G and the transition from 4G to 5G. The agreement will enable more opportunities for cooperation across different industries in areas such as advanced wireless communications, “internet of things,” network virtualization architectures and cloud.
“Telefónica continues advancing in its role as a key player in the development of 5G technologies, where we have been actively contributing to relevant international projects, industry associations and standardization bodies,” Telefónica’s CTO Enrique Blanco said. “We are very pleased to have reached this agreement with ZTE to cooperate on the next generation of mobile communications technology. 5G will have a massive impact on the telecommunication industry and on society as a whole. This is a process we are committed to and have already launched.”
The Spanish operator also signed a 5G and NG-RAN joint innovation agreement with Huawei. The two firms signed an initial strategic MoU on 5G in November.
The joint cooperation in the 5G and NG-RAN covers CloudRAN, 5G Radio User Centric No Cell, 5G Core Re-Architect and Massive MIMO innovation projects, aiming to improve the spectrum efficiency and build a cloud-native architecture. The major cooperation areas between Telefónica and Huawei would be the 5G core architecture evolution and research on CloudRAN.
“We are very pleased to have reached this further agreement with Huawei to keep cooperating on 5G and the next generation RAN. The collaboration with Huawei in this area allows sharing the true requirements of a global operator as Telefónica, and helping to focus on providing the right solutions on this Advanced Network at the right time,” Blanco said.
Telefónica ended the first quarter of 2016 with 316 million total subscribers, a 1.1% increase year-on-year. Mobile telephony subscribers totaled 246.8 million at the end of March, down 2.3% year-on-year. Telefónica said it reached 35.57 million LTE subscribers at the end of the period.
Telefonica has operations in Spain, Germany, the U.K. and Latin America.
