Airtel among the first to support ZTE's 1.4GHz TD-LTE terminals

ZTE Corporation, leading global provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions, has released the world’s first range of 1.4GHz TD-LTE terminals, including modules, USB cards, indoor CPE and outdoor CPE devices. ZTE has completed a range of 1.4GHz TD-LTE terminal function and performance tests in China’s first government-sponsored TD-LTE ‘internet of things’ in Beijing, China and the range of terminals is now ready to be applied to a wide range of applications, such as road surveillance, medical and health service systems, intelligent transportation systems and environmental protection.

Spreading the goodness of LTE at a rapid pace

ZTE is committed to pushing the rapid development of the TD-LTE industry, and co-operated with more than 30 mainstream chipset, device and test equipment manufacturers and the International Standards Organization to ensure the interoperability of all frequency bands. ZTE was the first company to release 1.9GHz equipment and solutions in 2011. On May 17, ZTE launched a large scale TD-LTE network in Guangzhou, China. This network can provide wireless data coverage to the transportation and safety surveillance sectors, high-speed media streaming, video conferencing and real-time news delivery at speeds up to 100mbps.

"The supported functions and improved performance of 1.4GHz TD-LTE communications provides opportunities for operators to open up new revenue streams,” said Wang Shouchen, Vice President, ZTE. “As a next step, ZTE is looking to deploy this technology in further networks around the world. To reach maturity, a communications technology needs four indispensable components - standards organizations, equipment suppliers, chipset and device providers, and the operators,” Mr Wang said. “The chipset and device industry has the most critical influence. The ICT industry’s rapid development has changed traditional communication services, creating huge demand for data. The high speed wireless connectivity and wide availability of 4G networks can provide major opportunities for operators, enterprises and governments to finally take advantage of the new era.”

As of Q1 2012, ZTE had concluded 30 LTE commercial contracts and over 100 trial networks with leading operators. Eight of them have already been commercially launched, including CSL in Hong Kong, SoftBank in Japan, Hi3G in Sweden, H3G in Austria and Bharti Airtel in India. What this means is that we can expect Airtel to launch LTE services much sooner than expected, which should hopefully bring the prices of 3G data services even lower.