China Mobile, Ericsson extend 5G cooperation
China Mobile announced that Ericsson has joined its 5G joint innovation centre initiative, which the world’s largest operator officially launched at Mobile World Congress last month.

The wide-ranging cooperation agreement between the two companies will cover 5G RAN and core network evolution. China Mobile’s 5G Innovation Centre aims to accelerate the development of 5G by establishing a cross-industry ecosystem and setting up an open lab to provide a platform for new products and applications, and to foster new business and market opportunities.

Ericsson in January signed an agreement with the China Mobile Research Institute to collaborate on the development of its Open NFV Lab and the NovoNet.

Last month the Swedish vendor announced it was working with South Korea’s largest operator SK Telecom to jointly build facilities to test so-called 5G networks and services.

India’s mobile data usage expands 50%
Mobile data traffic in India grew 50 per cent last year, with 3G traffic expanding 85 per cent – the first time it has outpaced 2G across all regions.

Nokia’s MBiT index found video and social networking usage account for 60 per cent of total data traffic. The average monthly data usage for 3G surpassed 750MB per subscriber.

Sandeep Girotra, Nokia’s VP and head of India, said data traffic growth in the future will be boosted by the auction of additional spectrum, an increase in smartphone penetration and development of the content ecosystem. “The rapid evolution of the device ecosystem, supported by a decline in prices, presents significant growth opportunities for operators as they launch and expand LTE networks in coming years.”

LG again leads in LTE patents in US
South Korea’s LG Electronics last year maintained its spot as the number one holder of “essential” technology patents related to LTE registered with the US Patent and Trademark Office for the fifth consecutive year, according to data compiled by US patent tracker TechIPM.

LG was followed by Samsung Electronics and US-based Qualcomm.

XL names independent director
Indonesian operator XL Axiata appointed Yessie Yosetya, who has been with the company for 11 years and is the chief service management officer, as an independent director at the board meeting yesterday.