Zong 4G & Huawei Launch World’s First Commercial LTE FDD Massive MIMO Site

With the focus to improve user experience, vigorously promote synergy of network, and to achieve the highest user satisfaction, Zong 4G continues to deliver the best in class service in Pakistan by expanding its network capacity to meet the network and commercial cluster requirements as well as optimization of network operations.

The successful commercial deployment marks another milestone of FDD technological innovation for Zong 4G in Pakistan. With the deployment of this commercial site, large service requirements in hotspots (PRB usage > 85%) during peak hours will be enhanced and service quality, as well as users’ experience, will also improve. Furthermore, it will adhere to the enhancement of network capabilities and streamline the E2E process from marketing, planning, and user compliant handling to network optimization.

In terms of technology, the innovative 32T32R technology is used on the existing spectrum to improve the user-perceived rate from 3.8 Mbit/s to 13.6 Mbit/s. Thus, the transmission modes can be selected more flexibly, based on UE capabilities.

In the traditional TM4 mode, soft split is used to improve the capacity by three to five-fold for inventory UEs. Massive MIMO can be implemented in TM9 mode to identify UE-level reference signals and allow different UEs to share the same spectrum resources (MU-MIMO). This further improves the user-perceived rate and cell capacity as the TM9 UE penetration rate increases.

A massive MIMO cell achieves 3-fold higher peak capacity than a traditional LTE cell. More 5G-like technologies are being introduced to LTE networks to improve network performance, resolve hotspot capacity challenges, facilitate 5G evolution, and support software upgrade for NR.

To quickly resolve live-network challenges, such as insufficient coverage and limited capacity, and improve user experience, Zong 4G  and Huawei jointly carried out multiple innovative projects in 2018, including LTE 4T6S, microwave MIMO, and CloudAIR. Particularly, the 4T6S solution improved network capacity by 1.8 fold and the user-perceived rate by 3.8 fold.

Zong 4G has deployed over 10,000 4G cellular sites, earned 52% of traffic share and continues to deliver optimal 4G LTE experience in Pakistan while aggressively expanding network capabilities deploying innovative solutions that meet diversified growing demands of new age customers.