[Shenzhen, China, March 7, 2013]: Huawei, a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, today announced worldwide adoption of 700MHz mobile broadband spectrum would significantly speed up with the formation of the Global 700M Industry Alliance, an initiative intended to encourage global development of 700M technologies and supply chains.
The Alliance was proposed at the first Asia Pacific Telecommunity 700 (APT700) Seminar held on the eve of Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona. The seminar was attended by almost 80 people including representatives from more than 30 operators, industry supply chain partners including key chipset and terminal providers, and telecoms regulators from Asia-Pacific, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa – areas which utilize the 700MHz spectrum band.
During the meeting Chris Quin, CEO of Telecom Retail at Telecom New Zealand, was named Chairman. Objectives for the proposed Global 700 Alliance Initiative and other details will be developed under the initial Chairmanship of Telecom New Zealand and shared with all prospective members of the initiative.
It was forecasted at the meeting that 2014 and 2015 would be critical years for developing the 700M industry chain. Also stressed was the need to accelerate development of lower cost LTE devices as an important part of enabling more rapid spectrum allocation and adoption of LTE worldwide.
Operators from Australia and New Zealand shared insights on their respective 700M network development strategies and business models, as well as terminal status. During the meeting it was announced that several devices supporting 700MHz are expected to be available by mid-2014. Subscribers are expected to be able to purchase “future ready” devices ahead of the launch of the new spectrum.
With high relevance for rural wide coverage and urban indoor coverage due to low-frequency transmissions, 700MHz will help operators greatly reduce initial network construction costs and shorten time to LTE deployment.
As of January 2014, more than 30 countries have announced plans to deploy LTE on 700MHz, with five or more APT700 networks to be deployed in 2014.
A larger scale Global 700M Alliance seminar involving all an even wide range of ecosystem players is being planned in Shanghai, based on inputs from all key participants, immediately before the start of Mobile Asia Expo.
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