Chinese telecom equipment provider ZTE has opened a new research and development center in Tokyo to focus on creating next-generation “5G” mobile network technologies.
The new facility will support ZTE’s partnerships with operators and academic institutions in Japan on the deployment of ZTE proprietary Pre5G technology and ongoing research on 4G and 5G mobile communications. The opening ceremony for the new R&D center was officiated by senior executives including Shi Lirong, president and CEO of ZTE, Zhang Renjun, SVP of ZTE, and Zhang Shumin, head of ZTE mobile devices in Asia-Pacific.
“ZTE’s world-class research on 5G technology will be further strengthened by the new R&D center in Japan,” Lirong said. “Japan is home to many of ZTE’s most important customers, and we will continue to increase our investment in this key market. The new R&D center will enable ZTE to recruit top local talents to join in our research on next-generation technologies.”
With this new opening in Japan, the Chinese vendor now operates 20 R&D centers in Asia, North America and Europe.
In July, ZTE announced it signed a memorandum of understanding with Japanese mobile operator SoftBank, to collaborate on research and development on Pre5G mobile communications networks technology. Under the agreement, ZTE and SoftBank agreed to cooperate on R&D, evaluation and verification of mobile communications solutions based on ZTE’s Pre5G technology, including Massive MIMO.
StarHub ends Q3 with 2.17M mobile subscribers
In other APAC news, Singaporean telecom operator StarHub ended the third quarter of 2015 with a total of 2.17 million subscribers in the mobile telephony segment, slightly down compared to 2.18 million in the same quarter a year ago. Postpaid subscribers accounted for 61% of the operator’s overall mobile base, which accounted for 51.1% of the company’s overall revenue in the period.
The company’s quarterly capital expenditures totaled 67 million Singapore dollars ($47 million), down 4% vs. the year-ago period. For full-year 2015, StarHub expects capex to represent nearly 13% of total revenue.
Operating revenue for the quarter increased 2% year-on-year to $603.1 million Singapore dollars compared to $592 million Singapore dollars in Q3 2014.
