ZTE announced that it has conducted what is believed to be the first FDD-LTE massive MIMO field trial in Indonesia in partnership with Telkomsel, the country's main mobile operator.
By deploying ZTE's FDD-LTE massive MIMO solution for the field trial, Telkomsel was able to achieve an almost four-fold increase in data throughput to 468 Mbit/s, compared to existing 2 x 2 MIMO FDD LTE network.
The field trial was conducted in Makassar, one of the largest and most densely-populated cities in eastern Indonesia and involved commercially-available TM9 handsets and MiFi units implemented in a simultaneous four handset/MiFi configuration, with 20 MHz of bandwidth.The trial was designed to demonstrate the capabilities of FDD-LTE massive MIMO technology to enhance the performance of existing 4G LTE networks without the need for new user terminals. Telkomsel noted that the results of the trial will support its efforts on implement network equalisation in eastern Indonesia.
Following completion of the successful field trials, ZTE and Telkomsel have agreed to continue with the next phase of the trials to verify additional technical aspects including coverage, mobility and interference. The trials are intended to ensure the feasibility of the technology and its suitability for a wider rollout across the Telkomsel LTE network in Indonesia.
