China Unicom launches LTE-Broadcast and Gigabit LTE with Ericsson

China Unicom commercially launched a Gigabit LTE network.

On August 23, passengers on a Hainan Island high-speed train were able to watch the lauch ceremony via LTE broadcast over the Gigabit wireless network. Ericsson, as China Unicom's strategic partner, is the exclusive provider of the LTE broadcast solution, which is China's first LTE broadcast commercial deployment. Ericsson also provided the Gigabit LTE network upgrade.

Hao Liqian, General Manager, Hainan branch, China Unicom, says: “This remarkable achievement will fulfill our strategy to offer the most advanced services to individuals and enterprises on the China Unicom network. Our launch ceremony today is important, innovative and fun, since we’re using Virtual Reality on a high-speed train over a high-speed network to prove the worthiness of this launch.”

Chris Houghton, Head of Market Area North East Asia, Ericsson, says: “We’re literally putting the network into the hands of the subscribers on day one.  People will be able to immerse themselves in their video experience and not just understand, but feel, the difference with a Gigabit LTE network while they are moving at very fast speeds.  It’s the perfect combination of thrilling speeds – physically and virtually.”

Ericsson said LTE broadcast will revolutionize video delivery in mobile networks enabled by the combination of three new standards: eMBMS, HEVC (H.265) and MPEG DASH/

Recently, Ericsson supported China Unicom in setting up a 1Gbps network in Guangdong, Hainan, Shandong, and Beijing with peak speeds of up to 979Mbps. With that speed, it takes just 13 seconds to download a 1080P high-definition movie. There are more on-going 1Gbps trials in Sichuan, Hubei, Shanxi, Jilin and Jiangsu province. A high-speed mobile broadband network will enable businesses and services using Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality and other big data operations.

https://www.ericsson.com/en/press-releases/2017/8/gigabit-network-launched-in-china