Belgium’s BASE is to research Internet of Things, LTE-Advanced and 5G technologies after signing a partnership agreement with ZTE.
The operator’s parent company Telenet announced its mobile arm will explore massive MIMO, LTE broadcast, multi-user shared access, filter bank OFDM, which increases spectral efficiency, virtual cells and network slicing.
Telenet CTO Micha Berger said: “We are happy to be engaged for a couple of months with ZTE. We are convinced this partnership will allow us to offer a top quality mobile network for existing and future needs all over Belgium.”
In August last year, the telcos signed a wide-ranging network modernisation agreement worth €250 million that covered BASE’s network.
ZTE decommissioned 2G base stations, optimised 3G and LTE coverage to deliver increased network capacity and laid the groundwork for the evolution through LTE-Advanced technologies as part of the deal.
At Mobile World Congress in March, both companies held a live demonstration of LTE-Advanced on BASE’s network, which resulted in speeds of 1.3GBps.
ZTE claimed the demonstration was the first for an operator in Europe to deliver those speeds under real-world conditions.
The vendor’s Senior Vice President Xiao Ming said: “This agreement provides a solid foundation for Telenet and ZTE to expand and strengthen the long-term partnership on the way to a new 5G era.”
Last month, ZTE said it was holding tests with Telekom Austria Group subsidiary velcom of NB-IoT ahead of a nationwide rollout across Belarus.
The Chinese vendor is also working with VEON on a rollout of NFV, as well as collaborating with Turkcell on the development of 5G technology.