China Mobile is expected to announce a deal with Ericsson and ZTE for the deployment of a TD-LTE network in Hong Kong this week, in its latest efforts to push the TD-LTE technology into the 4G market.
Ericsson and ZTE told telecomasia.net that China Mobile’s Hong Kong branch has selected the companies as partners to deploy the TD-LTE network that operates in the 2.3GHz frequency band.
ZTE said the company will supply equipment for the network in primary commercial areas of the city. Ericsson, which built China Mobile HK’s LTE network that operates in the 2.6GHz frequency band, will supply equipment for the remaining areas.
ZTE declined to reveal the financial terms of the deal but said the company will announce more details this afternoon.
China Mobile HK, which launched commercial LTE/FDD services in April, is expected to launch converged TDD/FDD LTE services by the end of this year, China Mobile chairman Xi Guohua said earlier this year.
As part of its plans to accelerate the commercial launch of TD-LTE services, China Mobile will also initiate a tender for 10, 000 units of TD-LTE devices this month.
The company is also testing TD-LTE in 13 cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou - which has largest TD-LTE trail network in the country.
Meanwhile, China Mobile and Clearwire have signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding to enable TD-LTE roaming between China and US, in a move to further bring the TD-LTE technology to the global market.
The companies will work together to define technical and business aspects necessary to provide and support international roaming and expect this agreement to serve as a blueprint for future roaming agreements with other members of the Global TD-LTE Initiative.
Both China Mobile and Clearwire are developing TD-LTE networks in their respective markets and plan to provide 4G roaming capability and 4G services with the same international accessibility as other wireless technology on the global scale.
China Mobile recently demonstrated a two-way roaming between its TD-LTE systems in Hangzhou and an FDD network run by its Hong Kong subsidiary.
"Our goal is to make a converged LTE TDD/FDD market in which our subscribers roam between a TD-LTE network and a LTE FDD network at affordable cost and enjoy the benefit of LTE service globally," Tiger Lin, chairman of the international division, said in a statement.