Huawei, Docomo stream video in 5G field test
China’s Huawei and Japan’s NTT Docomo jointly held a field trial of 5G radio access technologies in an outdoor test site in Chengdu, China, which streamed live video to the vendor’s booth at a trade show in Chiba, Japan.
The trial, Huawei said, represents the first large-scale multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO) technology test, connecting 24 user devices in the macro-cell environment on a sub-6GHz band. The average downlink throughput was 1.34Gb/s, with a peak download speed of 3.6Gb/s in a 100MHz ultra-wide band channel.
It was also the first validation of the performance of Sparse Code Multiple Access (SCMA) and filtered OFDM (F-OFDM) in the field, both of which are new 5G air interface technologies proposed by Huawei.
Telstra creates 3 new senior positions
Australia’s Telstra appointed executives to three new senior-level positions, a move CEO Andrew Penn said is aimed at improving the operator’s consumer and product offers, elevating its media and marketing activities and aligning them across the business.
The operator appointed Karsten Wildberger, previously managing director for consumer, as group executive for retail, while Cynthia Whelan, managing director of strategic finance and acting group executive of international, was promoted to group executive for international and new businesses. Joe Pollard was named as chief marketing officer and group executive media. He worked before as group managing director of media and marketing.
StarHub deploys 4G hetnet in Marina Bay
Singapore’s StarHub is using Nokia Networks’ TD-FDD LTE and outdoor small-cells gear to deploy a heterogeneous network, or hetnet, in the city’s Marina Bay district.
LTE-Advanced with carrier aggregation provides high data rates while small cells were used at strategic traffic hotspots to handle peak-hour data demand. The hetnet is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
The companies also said they achieved the industry’s first TDD-FDD voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) handover.
India’s Airtel launches Wi-Fi app
India’s largest operator Bharti Airtel introduced a Wi-Fi app, called Airtel Hangout, that enables customers to seamlessly connect to its Wi-Fi zones.
Airtel said it has Wi-Fi zones in eight locations in the greater Delhi region and plans to roll out them out nationally. Once the app is installed, users with 3G or 4G data plans can automatically connect to its Wi-Fi networks. Wi-Fi data consumption will be charged from their plans.
The app can be downloaded from Google Play and the Apple App Store.
Zong, Telenor agree to share fibre in Pakistan
Telenor Pakistan and Zong, which is owned by China Mobile, agreed to share their optical-fiber networks across Pakistan as rising data demands from 3G users has created higher demand for transmission capacity.
With growing data usage and narrowing margins, the country’s operators are aggressively considering sharing networks and this agreement is an example of that, said ProPakistani.
Meizu delays Pro 5 until November
Chinese smartphone maker Meizu has delayed the release of its newest flagship model, the Pro 5, by a month due to flooding in Guangdong province a week ago.
The 5.7-inch model, which runs on Samsung’s Exynos 7420 processor, was due for release next week, but the company said it won’t be available until sometime in November because of flooding caused by a typhoon in southern China.
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