ZTE Corporation has announced the successful trial of South Asia’s first LTE (Long Term Evolution) Infrastructure, in partnership with Sri Lanka’s national mobile services provider, Mobitel. The trial system will feature a peak bit rate speed of up to 96 Mbps and incorporate LTE services such as HD streaming media play, file upload and download, as well as web browsing.

Mobitel chose to deploy ZTE’s advanced Uni RAN + uni core solutions as well as the 2600M frequency LTE indoor coverage system, which is rare in the industry, to deploy the LTE test network in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo.

ZTE’s SDR-based Uni RAN and ETCA/T8000-based Uni Core solution could support products of different platforms such as CDMA, GSM, and LTE. With this solution, Mobitel was able to use just one access network and one core network (RAN & Core) to realize network expansion and seamless evolution. In terms of future network upgrading, only a single baseband processing board is needed to be added or replaced, with the remaining components being realized through software upgrades. This feature will ensure smooth evolution and maximum reduction of TCO.

On the other hand, ZTE’s solution will not only extend the system’s service life and reduce investment risk; it could also simultaneously resolve challenges of indoor LTE coverage very quickly, by using indoor ceiling-mounted antennae, couplers, power dividers and combiners.

“As the national mobile telecom services provider, we are committed to take every initiative towards developing our nation through the use of ICT,” said Suren J. Amarasekera, CEO, Sri Lanka Telecom Mobitel. “The growing power of ICT services and terminal devices as well as emerging trends such as cloud computing and machine-to-machine communications, require network infrastructure capable of ultra high data link speeds and bandwidth. We strongly believe that LTE will enhance capabilities towards fulfilling the ever increasing ICT needs of citizens of Sri Lanka and thereby lead our country towards an infocom and knowledge-rich society.”

ZTE Corporation of China was selected by Mobitel under its ongoing Stage VI Expansion Project as its technology partner to deploy this state-of-the-art, LTE-ready Next-Generation-Network.