China’s ZTE joins MTN for 5G network roll-out in Africa
International telecomms giant, ZTE Corporation of China, earlier this week signed a memorandum of understanding with the MTN group to collaborate on 5G network architecture, and for its introduction to the African continent. The memorandum was singed at the Mobile World Congress currently underway in Barcelona, Spain.
Drawing on their existing cooperation, the two companies will jointly conduct a series of technology verification tests and assessments in 5G, to strengthen MTN’s continental position and accelerate the commercialization of 5G in Africa.
ZTE will provide the MTN Group comprehensive technical support. Specifically, in the phase one test in 2018, ZTE will collaborate with MTN to complete both lab and field tests in 5G NR, 5G virtualized network slicing, carrier-class DevOps and container-based vEPC, and 5G Flexhaul bearer network.
With these tests in end-to-end networks, applications and terminals, the two parties will complete the joint verification of 5G technology architecture, business model and user experience, expecting to lay a solid foundation for the MTN Group to take the lead in 5G deployment in Africa.
“ZTE has always been a long-term strategic partner of MTN Group. After extensive partnerships on 2G, 3G and 4G, we are excited to be collaborating with ZTE on 5G. We believe 5G is an evolutionary step in getting connectivity, data and access to our customers,” said Babak Fouladi, the CTIO of the MTN Group.
Xu Huijun, the CTO of ZTE, said: “As the world’s leading provider of ICT solutions, ZTE is a pioneer in the field of 5G. We believe that the cooperation in 5G will help MTN leverage its performance and enable it to build a world-class network.”
As its core strategy, ZTE has 5G partnerships with many well-known high-end operators worldwide, including Telefonica, T-Mobile, Italy’s Wind Tre, Belgium’s Telenet, VEON, Telecom Malaysia, South Korea’s KT, China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom. ZTE operates in more than 160 countries.
