China’s ZTE Corp. has helped China Unicom successfully field test its first 5G new radio (NR) technology.
Deploying ZTE’s pre-commercial 5G base station at sub-6 gigahertz with massive multiple input, multiple output, low-density parity check and other key 5G technologies, China Unicom was able to achieve data rates of up to 2 gigabits per second for single user-equipment. The test took place in Shenzhen, China, using the 3.5 gigahertz frequency band with a 100 megahertz bandwidth and connected by ZTE.
The goal of the test was to verify the 5G performance and commercial capabilities in an actual network environment. ZTE and China Unicom are working with more than 2,000 R&D engineers focused on 5G deployment, and ZTE says it is increasing its investment in 5G technologies to drive faster 5G standardization.
Following the field testing in 2017, China Unicom has a goal of pre-commercial 5G network deployment in 2019 followed by large-scale deployment in 2020.
