China's ZTE Corporation signed a memorandum of understanding with SoftBank Corporation to collaborate on research and development on Pre5G mobile communications networks technology.
Under the MOU, the two companies will cooperate on R&D, evaluation and verification of mobile communications solutions based on ZTE's Pre5G technology, including Massive MIMO. The agreement builds on existing cooperation between SoftBank and ZTE on technologies including Massive MIMO, UDN and MUSA.
ZTE's Massive MIMO base stations have the capability to support more than 100 antenna elements, and provide higher space division multiplexing gains than traditional 8-antenna base stations without changing existing terminals or air interfaces, greatly enhancing spectrum utilization. With ZTE's Massive MIMO base station, up to eight users can transfer data simultaneously.
Financial terms of the arrangement were not released by either side.