Ericsson and Intel team up with Chinese state for 3.5GHz 5G test

The 5G testing continues and Ericsson has scored a win over its Chinese rivals by getting in with China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

The collaboration also involved US chip giant Intel and concerned 5G multi-vendor interoperability over the 3.5 GHz band at a field test in Beijing. It used Ericsson’s 5G radio testbed and Intel’s 5G client test platform. The MIIT seems to be a combination of government department and regulator for IT and Telecoms, so it’s presumably pretty influential in a country where the state has far more power and influence than in western democracies.

“We recognize the importance and innovation of the Chinese market and by working closely with ecosystem partners such as Intel, we are helping to pave the way for a successful rollout of 5G in the future,” said Chris Houghton, Head of Market Area North East Asia at Ericsson. “This accomplishment is the first of many that will enable our customers to benefit from better, smarter networks.”

“To help the communications industry meet its ambitious targets, Intel in September 2017 announced its Intel 5G Mobile Trial Platform as the first to meet upcoming new radio standards,” said Asha Keddy, GM of the Next Generation and Standards Group at Intel. “This flexible Mobile Trial Platform is powered by high-performance Intel FPGAs and Intel Core processors, which allow for early collaboration and innovations with Ericsson that will benefit the Chinese market.”

The Chinese market will be at least as important as the US for 5G so getting an early foothold there is very valuable. Despite China’s reputation for being relatively closed to foreign companies, the likes of Ericsson and Nokia seem to be getting as much of a chance there as Huawei and ZTE.