Under the terms of the agreement both parties extend their existing partnership to conduct a series of technology verification tests and assessments in 5G to accelerate the commercialisation of 5G in MEA.
"ZTE has always been a long-term strategic partner of MTN Group,” said Babak Fouladi, CTIO of MTN Group. “After extensive partnerships on 2G, 3G and 4G, we are excited to be collaborating with ZTE on 5G. We believe 5G is an evolutionary step in getting connectivity, data and access to our customers. We are looking forward to continuing our journey in the 5G innovations and through that, we can strengthen existing cooperation and jointly explore the future direction of network construction and technology evolution, and bring services to our customers. MTN and ZTE always think about the customers at the first priority. Providing best services to customers is more important than technology and efficiency."
For ZTE’s part of the collaboration it will provide the MTN Group with technical support, specifically during its phase one test which will take place in 2018.In addition, ZTE will work with MTN on both lab and field tests in 5G NR, 5G virtualized network slicing, carrier-class DevOps and container-based vEPC, as well as 5G Flexhaul bearer network.
It is hoped that through these tests in end-to-end networks, applications and terminals, the two company will complete the joint verification of 5G technology architecture, business model and user experience, allowing the MTN Group to take the lead in 5G deployment in the MEA region.
"As the world's leading provider of ICT solutions, ZTE pioneers in the field of 5G, our core strategy. We believe that the cooperation in 5G field this time will help MTN leverage its performance as the best carrier, and enable it to build a world-class network," added Xu Huijun, CTO of ZTE.
The news follows a string of similar announcements for ZTE which has recently entered into 5G partnerships with many well-known high-end operators worldwide, including Telefonica, T-Mobile, Italy's Wind Tre, Belgium's Telenet, VEON, Telecom Malaysia, South Korea's KT, China Mobile, China Unicom, SoftBank, Rostelecom and China Telecom.
