China Mobile, ZTE, E-Plus collaborate on LTE

China Mobile, ZTE and Germany’s E-Plus Group have signed a memorandum of understanding that will see the two Chinese firms take part in the latter’s TD-LTE trial.

During the trial, scheduled for later this quarter, China Mobile will lend its experience in managing c rollouts, while ZTE will supply FD-LTE/TD-LTE base stations developed on the SDR platform.

The trial will involve ZTE and the E-Plus Group investigating the capabilities of ZTE’s SDR equipment and how best to utilize the 1.8 GHz, 2.1 GHz and 2.6GHz lots of spectrum that the E-Plus Group holds for both TD-LTE and LTE FDD.

E-Plus is Germany’s smallest mobile network operator and is owned by Dutch telecommunications operator KPN. The deal forms part of ZTE’s partnership with KPN involving LTE trials with the latter’s holdings in Belgium and Germany. ZTE and KPN have also previously collaborated on 3G rollouts.