ZTE Corporation announced its partnership with Wind Tre and Open Fiber, the largest mobile operator in Italy, to build Europe's first pre-commercial 5G network, using the 3.6 to 3.8 GHz band.
In early 2017, the Italian Government announced its intent to take the lead in rolling out the EU 5G Action Plan, in a move to encourage Italy's top operators to build 5G networks to promote the country’s 5G commercialization. Five pilot cities were selected. Trials are important milestones in the 5G Action Plan, and Wind Tre and Open Fiber will partner with ZTE to conduct pre-commercial 5G trials in the Italian provinces of L'Aquila and Prato.
ZTE plans to provide the most advanced 5G end-to-end network solution for the pre-commercial field test, partnering with Wind Tre, Open Fiber, local universities and enterprises to test and verify the technical performance, network architecture, 4G/5G network integration and future 5G use cases, including AR/VR, smart city, public safety, healthcare and Industry 4.0.
Bai Yanmin, general manager of ZTE's TDD and 5G products, said, "We are honored to partner with Wind Tre and Open Fiber in building Europe's first 5G pre-commercial network. Meanwhile, we also plan to build a ZTE 5G Innovation and Research Center in L'Aquila. As a leading global provider of telecom solutions, ZTE is committed to becoming a global 5G pioneer, with 5G as its core strategy. We believe that this cooperation will help Italy build a world-class 5G pre-commercial network, promote the commercialization of 5G in other countries and regions and accelerate the construction of a 5G industry chain."
ZTE has signed 5G strategic partnerships with China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, SoftBank, Telefonica, Belgium's Telenet and South Korea's KT; ZTE has also engaged in technical and industrial collaborations with several other carriers. ZTE plans to continue working with its partners conducting 5G tests and trials and promoting the commercialization of 5G worldwide, to offer the full gamut of the coming 5G experience.