Press Release
ZTE Corporation, a major international provider of telecommunications, enterprise and consumer technology solutions for the Mobile Internet, is boosting its relationship with Telenet Belgium at Mobile World Congress, which takes place in Barcelona from 27 February to 2 March. In 2016, ZTE and Telenet signed a deal for the modernization of the BASE mobile network, a company that Telenet had acquired in 2015, followed by an announcement that Telenet intended to invest €250 million in the transformation of its mobile network. At Mobile World Congress, ZTE will showcase some early results from the cooperation with Telenet CTO, Micha Berger, and Zhao Xianming, CEO of ZTE, meeting to ensure that the further transformation of the BASE mobile network will progress as planned.
Mr. Berger comments: “We have chosen ZTE to be our partner in the complete network upgrade and whole infrastructure digitalization of our mobile network. We are also currently able to demonstrate a speed test of 1.3 gigabit per second download speed on our live mobile network thanks to ZTE equipment.”
The speed test was a major milestone for both companies. Based on ZTE’s 4.5G technology, a download speed was achieved that is four times faster than 4G’s maximum download speed. Telenet is the first operator in Europe to reach this speed under real-world conditions.
“At Telenet we are very excited about the results of this test,” explains Mr. Berger. “The new speed record is an important milestone in itself but it also paves the way for our future 5G networks.” For Telenet, the 5G network is an important enabler of digital transformation and the company wants to be a key provider of the digital future. Mr. Berger further comments: “The future of IT is based on digital transformation. It has a very strong influence, especially in the B2B world. Businesses are transforming themselves by transforming their processes in order to benefit from digital efficiencies. We also see it in our daily lives. We see it in families, when we go shopping, everything we do has a digital element to it. Therefore, for us, the facilitation of digital transformation is something that we need to offer to our customers, consumers as well as B2B clients. ZTE helps us to achieve this. I am very happy with the results achieved so far and am looking forward to implementing the next steps and future developments discussed with Mr. Xianming Zhao.”
ZTE shows total commitment to helping Telenet take the next steps on its way to become the key enabler of the digital future. The 1.3Gbps demo opens a new era in Telenet and ZTE’s partnership in advanced wireless technology innovation. ZTE is supporting Telenet to bring this cutting edge technology to end users and improve user experience, which will enhance Telenet’s success in Belgium. “We have been very happy meeting with Mr. Berger at MWC and look forward to further building the relationship with Telenet to get the mobile network to the next level of the digital transformation,” says Mr. Patric Bin, Benelux ZTE CEO.
