Telefónica adds ZTE to 5G partnership drive

Telefónica has continued its 5G innovation drive by partnering with ZTE for another research and development project.

While yesterday’s announcement saw the Spanish telco join forces with Huawei over RAN-based R&D; today’s partnership agreement with rival Chinese kit vendor ZTE was more vague on the objectives and details.

ZTE referred to the deal as a move which will facilitate the move from 4G to 5G, with its ambition being to create a “virtuous circle of innovation”.  It says the agreement will enable more opportunities for cooperation across different industries focussing on very current technologies like IoT, network virtualization and cloud.

“Telefonica continues advancing in its role as a key player in the development of 5G technologies, where we have been actively contributing to relevant international projects, industry associations and standardisation bodies,” said Enrique Blanco, CTO of Telefónica. “We are very pleased to have reached this agreement with ZTE to cooperate on the next generation of mobile communications technology. 5G will have a massive impact on the telecommunication industry and on society as a whole. This is a process we are committed to and have already launched.”

The CTO of ZTE, meanwhile, claims its pioneering approach to 5G will allow Telefónica to flourish in the next generation of wireless technology. “We believe that the application of this 5G MoU will help Telefonica leverage its performance as best carrier, and enable our customer to build a world-class network,” said Xu Huijun.