Vodafone India unveils WiFi offload app
India’s second largest operator Vodafone India launched a WiFi offload app that shifts data traffic away from its cellular network to reduce network congestion.

Vodafone’s Wi-Fi Connect is available on Android and iOS platforms and requires a one-time sign-in. The operator currently has about 100 WiFi zones in Delhi and Mumbai.

Rivals Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Aircel are also looking to offload data traffic to WiFi, the Economic Times reported.

Just 12 per cent of Vodafone’s 185 million mobile connections are 3G, according to GSMA Intelligence.

China Mobile selects Ericsson for TD-LTE project
China Mobile has selected Ericsson as one of the suppliers for the operator’s 4G network phase-3 project.

As part of the agreement, the vendor will deploy TD-LTE networks in 14 provinces and Chongqing municipality, which account for around 60 per cent of China’s population and have nearly 100 million 4G subscribers.

U Mobile, ZTE team up on pre-5G R&D
Malaysia’s U Mobile announced it is partnering with China’s ZTE to develop pre-5G and 5G technologies.

U Mobile, the country’s fourth largest mobile player with almost a 9 per cent market share, said 70 per cent of its subscribers are smartphone users.

ZTE claims its pre-5G base station boosts the spectral efficiency of current LTE networks by four to six times by using massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology.

ZTE is also collaborating on pre-5G research with SoftBank in Japan and KT in Korea.

China Mobile gives ZTE share of VoLTE contract
China Mobile has named ZTE as a supplier for the second phase of its Voice over LTE (VoLTE) rollout.

ZTE said it will provide a full-range of VoLTE core network solutions covering equipment and systems integration in major provinces, including Guangdong, Jiangsu, Hubei, Hunan, Shandong, Sichuan and Fujian.

Huawei reportedly will build out almost half of the operator’s VoLTE project.