Telecom solutions provider ZTE partnered with China Mobile on a recent field test of enhanced 5G Mobile Broadband using the former’s 3.5 GHz new radio base station.
In an announcement at Mobile World Congress Shanghai this week, ZTE said the pair conducted an initial 5G field test in Guangzhou University Town, which is reportedly one of the most typical high-traffic environments and a key ‘pilot field’ for 5G eMBB scenarios. Subsequent phases of testing will span multiple sites and measure wireless coverage, throughput, mobility, delay, and other 5G network indicators.
ZTE also demonstrated its 5G technology at MWC. At the 100 MHz bandwidth, the single-user rate reached 2 Gbps, the company reported.
Nokia is also conducting demonstrations at the Shanghai show this week, highlighting the ability of its 4.9G technology to deliver lower latency. The company said 4.9G run over its AirScale base station can reduce network latency to less than two milliseconds using a feature that allows transmission time intervals to be shortened by 86 percent.
“We are committed to helping operators evolve their networks in the most effective way, allowing them to anticipate and meet demands with higher performance where and when it is needed. We continue to evolve our 4G offering with 4.5G Pro and 4.9G technologies, and with this network latency demonstration we can show operators how they could use LTE to deliver higher-bandwidth industry and enterprise applications to more customers on their path to 5G,” Nokia’s head of LTE business Tero Peltola commented.
Nokia first debuted the concept of 4.9G (and its predecessor, 4.5G) ahead of CTIA’s 2016 Mobile Carriers show. More on that here and here.
AT&T said it has teamed up with Internet of Things platform provider Cisco Jasper to offer customers new control capabilities via AT&T Control Center – Advanced.
The upgraded version of AT&T Control Center reportedly offers improved security features that can identify issues and protect data across devices and systems; enhanced diagnostics, analytics, and alerts to optimize performance; and automation of the IoT service lifecycle to help customers scale faster. AT&T and Cisco Jasper also have added performance visualization tools to allow product developers to see device failures over time and spot trends before they become problems.
Verizon is extending the My Verizon App to prepaid customers to help them manage their plans. Starting today, prepaid customers will be able to make payments, enroll in Auto Pay, monitor usage, add data, or change their plan through the app.
The app will be available with the $40, $50, $60, and unlimited prepaid plans.
