ZTE has about 200 people are working in advanced technologies research group
BARCELONA–ZTE is already carrying out research activities to explore new technologies beyond 5G, ZTE’s Chief Scientist Xiang Jiying told reporters during a press conference at the Mobile World Congress 2019.
“We are currently researching on 6G. We have a research group focusing on that. This group is called advanced technologies, which would be those technologies beyond 5G,” the executive said.
“This group started to research on what technologies will appear after 5G two or three years ago,” he added.
Xiang also said ZTE has not reduced the size of the research teams for 5G now that the technology is ready to be commercially launched. He said that nearly 7,000 people are currently working in the vendor’s 5G research area.
In the advanced technology research group, a total of 100-200 researchers are currently working to identify new technologies. However, this research group is expected to gradually expand in the medium term, the executive added.
Commenting on the upcoming launches of commercial 5G networks in a number of countries, Xiang said that the maturity of this technology will depend on the availability of 5G handsets.
He said that 5G will be probably a mature technology in the Chinese market in approximately three years.
In China, the company is involved in several 5G trials both with the government and local carriers.
Last month, ZTE said it has completed the third phase of China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology’s IMT-2020 5G core network tests.
The vendor revealed that the phase included the evaluation of the performance of the network function virtualization infrastructure platform, the service performance of the 5G core network element, as well as system capacity and stability.
The vendor said it has passed all test cases and met the requirements for service model and specification indicators with its test results, verifying the maturity of its 5G core network solution.
Also in January, ZTE and China Unicom have completed a 5G call using ZTE’s 5G prototype smartphone in a Shenzhen 5G field trial.
In Shenzhen, China Unicom is verifying its 5G network equipment’s networking capabilities, special services, roaming and interconnection. The test used ZTE’s 5G end-to-end solution, including radio access network, core network, transport network and intelligent device; the connection was made with ZTE’s 5G prototype smartphone in the field.
Meanwhile, the test has verified several 5G key technologies such as massive multiple-input multiple-output, 5G New Radio, Nonstandalone dual-connectivity, FlexE transport technology and 5G Common Core.
ZTE is also carrying out additional 5G trials in China with other carriers.
