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MTN SA, Huawei jointly launch first commercial 2G, 3G, 4G and NB-IOT spectrum sharing solution (CloudAIR 2.0)


Johannesburg, 18 May 2018

In a global first, MTN SA has successfully commercially deployed Huawei's CloudAIR 2.0 solution to share spectrum between 2G, 3G, 4G and NB-IOT radio technologies in the 900MHz band.

MTN SA and Huawei established a joint innovation programme in 2017 to research and trial innovative technologies, such as CloudAIR 2.0, in MTN SA's network. Huawei's CloudAIR 2.0 solution supports overlap of 2G, 3G, 4G and NB-IOT services in the 900MHz spectrum band, which enables MTN SA to make more efficient use of its limited 900MHz spectrum allocation, and achieve a 45% increase in LTE throughput within the band.

Giovanni Chiarelli, Chief Technology and Information Officer for MTN SA, said: "Spectrum is an extremely precious asset. This new network optimisation technique improves spectral efficiency and gives MTN the ability to deploy LTE within the same 900MHz band, alongside GSM, UMTS and NB-IOT, while significantly improving LTE coverage and user experience."

Edward Deng, President of Wireless Network Product Line of Huawei, said: "The spectrum cloudification sharing capabilities of CloudAIR 2.0 enable the deployment of different radio access technologies within the same spectrum. This solution can allocate and adjust spectrum resources according to the changes of mobile traffic and avoid legacy radio access technologies from occupying prime spectrum, thereby improving spectral efficiency.

"CloudAIR 2.0 is a valuable solution that can hasten radio technology evolution, to increase network capacity, and improve customer experience," Deng added.

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MTN Group

Launched in 1994, the MTN Group is a multinational telecommunications group, operating in 22 countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The MTN Group is listed on the JSE Securities Exchange in South Africa under the share code: "MTN". As of 30 June 2017, MTN recorded 231.8 million subscribers across its operations in Afghanistan, Benin, Botswana, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Cyprus, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Republic, Iran, Liberia, Nigeria, Republic of Congo (Congo Brazzaville), Rwanda, South Africa, Sudan, South Sudan Swaziland, Syria, Uganda, Yemen and Zambia. Visit MTN at www.mtn.com and www.mtn.co.za.

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