16 May 2017, Shenzhen, China – ZTE Corporation (0763.HK / 000063.SZ), a major international provider of telecommunications, enterprise and consumer technology solutions for the Mobile Internet, today announced its participation in the second phase of China's 5G test, as well as breakthroughs in a number of technical solution verifications.

China’s 5G testing is the world’s first 5G test that is guided and planned by the government. It is led by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), and implemented by China’s IMT-2020 (5G) promotion group. The project’s research and development (R&D) can be divided into three phases: key technology verification, technical solution verification, and system verification. The project entered the technical solution verification phase this year. At this stage, ZTE needs to participate in the R&D of a full range of 5G new radio (NR) prototype products on the basis of early key technology verification, and needs to verify functions and performance in typical 5G application scenarios to prepare for future 5G commercial network establishment.

ZTE provides a series of 5G prototype products based on the new unified platform. ZTE, Keysight, Rohde & Schwarz, and many other mainstream test instrument vendors participated in the technical solution verification tests of four major technologies. These were 5G NR@Sub-6GHz, 5G NR@mmWave, massive machine type communication (mMTC), and ultra-reliable low latency communications (uRLLC). The tests also included seven scenarios (continuous wide-coverage scenario, low-delay & high-reliability scenario, low-power & massive-connection scenario, hotspots@Sub-6GHz scenario, hotspots@mmWave scenario, Sub-6GHz&mmWave hybrid networking scenario as well as other hybrid networking scenarios).

In the prototype@Sub-6GHz field, ZTE launched a new 3.5GHz NR pre-commercial base station. All entries have passed the radio frequency (RF) tests of the MIIT. The RF bandwidth of the base station reaches 200MHz. Its volume, weight, power and other key indicators meet the requirements for pre-commercial network establishment. The related field performance tests in Beijing have also been started. In the mmWave field, ZTE launched a series of prototype products. ZTE has made significant progress in key technical solutions, machine integration and other aspects related to performance. In the recent pre-test at ZTE Shanghai Institute, ZTE showcased its latest 26GHz base station@mmWave, where its single-user peak rate is nearly 16Gbps. In addition, ZTE conducted a 60GHz prototype@mmWave comparison test, indicating that China's technical capability in the mmWave field has been rapidly improved. Besides the development in the fields of mMTC and uRLLC, ZTE launched the more mature enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) platform based on last year's technology verification platform.

As a core member of the China IMT-2020 Promotion Group, ZTE takes the initiative in undertaking a number of key technical research and product development tasks, and takes the lead in the research and standardisation of a number of key 5G technologies. Following the completion of the first phase of China's 5G technology R&D test, the second phase and resulting 5G tests in Beijing were officially delivered. The test provides 5G NR@Sub-6GHz, 5G NR@mmWave, mMTC, and uRLLC test conditions, and meets all test research requirements for the future large-scale commercial use of 5G.

Bai Gang, general manager of 5G products at ZTE, said: "The 5G technology R&D test organised by the IMT-2020 Promotion Group is the key to 5G development, and is highly significant for the promotion of key 5G technology research, verification of 5G technical solutions, and development of a global unified 5G standard. ZTE will contribute sufficient resources to guarantee the test work and will be committed to becoming one of the first 5G commercial equipment suppliers to lay the foundations for the commercial use of 5G in China in 2020."