China Mobile has signed agreements with vendor partners Nokia and Ericsson to expand their collaboration on 5G and IoT. Through its deal with Nokia, the two companies jointly research and trial use-cases leveraging Nokia’s 5G ‘Future X’ network architecture and NB-IoT. The duo will investigate how the cellco can extend its service offerings for vertical markets and explore how industries can be integrated into the smart city ecosystem. In a similar vein, Mobile has teamed up with Ericsson to build an Industry IoT Cooperation Centre to plan and develop IoT connectivity and ecosystem solutions for areas such as manufacturing, health and transport, Telecom Asia writes.
The agreements follow on the heels of the revelation earlier this month that China Mobile accelerated its launch plan for 5G, aiming for a 2019 introduction of the new platform rather than its original 2020 target. Viavi Solutions has been selected by the cellco to support the development of Slicing Packet Network (SPN) and FlexE technologies for the operator’s 5G transport network. Viavi Solutions President and CEO Oleg Khaykin commented on the contract: ‘Viavi has been honoured to collaborate with China Mobile on analysing 5G network scenarios and proposing technology strategy. In order to realise China Mobile’s vision of introducing 5G service by the end of 2019, principal technologies including SPN for transport must be standardised by the ITU. We have advanced our test technology to meet this objective and our solutions are ready to support the China Mobile ecosystem of partners to deliver interoperable network infrastructure.’