Developing Telecoms | China Mobile signs up NSN and Alcatel-Lucent for TD-LTE trials

21 May 2012

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China Mobile signs up NSN and Alcatel-Lucent for TD-LTE trials

Monday, 28 March 2011 15:18 | James Barton

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The largest mobile operator in China, China Mobile, has begun selected vendors to take part in its TD-LTE trial, with the most recently confirmed additions being the international vendors Nokia Siemens Networks and Alcatel-Lucent.

The trial will take place across seven cities – Shanghai, Xiamen, Nanjing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, and Beijing. Alcatel-Lucent and NSN will each deploy an end-to-end LTE solution in one of these cities, indicating that a different vendor’s solution will be deployed in each city; there are reports that numerous high-profile vendors, such as Huawei, ZTE and Ericsson, are under consideration for the trials.

Alcatel-Lucent’s Shanghai Bell unit will deploy its solution in Shanghai, while NSN’s solution will be trialled in Hangzhou. Both vendors have already completed interoperability testing in the 2.3GHz and 2.6GHz frequencies for outdoor deployments, and in the 2.3GHz frequency for indoor deployments.

NSN has also tested the interoperability of its TD-LTE equipment with devices provided by other major suppliers. Alcatel-Lucent, which conducted such tests last year, has attributed its selection by China Mobile to the success of these trials. The vendor’s Asia-Pacific president, Rajeev Singh-Molares, held up the trials as an example of the firm’s “commitment to create an open TD-LTE ecosystem that will participate in the broader global LTE value chain."

Markus Borchert, NSN’s head of Greater China customer operations, was keen to stress the vendor’s dedication to the trials, stating “Nokia Siemens Networks has built a complete TD-LTE business in China, integrating procurement, production, testing and maintenance with its Hangzhou R&D Centre at the centre of this value chain.”

The vendor will provide network construction, installation and optimisation services, having received approval to participate in the TD-LTE trials from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People’s Republic of China (MIIT).

Alcatel-Lucent’s involvement in what it describes as “the world’s largest TD-LTE trial” may be linked back to its trial of TD-LTE tech at the Shanghai World Expo, which was conducted in partnership with China Mobile. The vendor is set to take part in thirteen TD-LTE trials across seven countries.

China Mobile is expected to begin issuing tenders for equipment in May or June, although other sources claim that the operator is aiming to launch commercial TD-LTE services next year.

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