Chinese telecom players flag strategic alliance to support future network evolution.

Iain Morris, International Editor

March 29, 2016

2 Min Read
China Unicom, ZTE Partner on SDN, NFV

China Unicom and ZTE have formed a strategic partnership covering the development of SDN and NFV technologies.

The companies say they plan to work together using open source technology and will carry out research into software and virtualization that could provide a "solid foundation" for future collaboration in this area.

China's second-largest mobile operator, behind market leader China Mobile Ltd. (NYSE: CHL), China Unicom Ltd. (NYSE: CHU) in October completed a proof of concept (PoC) for voice-over-LTE services based on a virtualized EPC (evolved packet core) and a virtualized IMS (IP multimedia subsystem) architecture.

The operator says its work on the PoC was an important demonstration of the network-as-a-service (NaaS) concept it is promoting.

Taking advantage of SDN and NFV, telcos hope to be able to provide network services in the kind of on-demand fashion now taken for granted by customers of web-scale players.

"The partnership with ZTE Corp. (Shenzhen: 000063; Hong Kong: 0763) should focus on China Unicom's marketing and business development needs … and adopt open-source, iterative and other new R&D models," said Chi Yongsheng, the deputy director of the China Unicom Network Technology Research Institute, in a company statement.

China Mobile and China Unicom have recently drawn attention to the challenges they are facing as they look to boost revenues from data services, including competition from web offerings. Telcos worldwide hope investment in SDN and NFV technologies will give them tools to help counter that threat. (See China Mobile Flags Concerns as Profits Dip.)

Meanwhile, both China Mobile and China Telecom Corp. Ltd. (NYSE: CHA), which operates the smallest of China's three nationwide mobile networks, have backed a new SDN and NFV group, called OPEN-O, aimed at driving open SDN and NFV orchestration. (See China Mobile Shifts to Global Stage .)

A rival to the alternative Open Source MANO Community, OPEN-O draws support from vendors including ZTE, Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. , Brocade Communications Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: BRCD), Ericsson AB (Nasdaq: ERIC), IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM), Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC) and Red Hat Inc. (NYSE: RHT). (See OPEN-O Focused on Orchestrating SDN & NFV.)

— Iain Morris, Circle me on Google+ Follow me on TwitterVisit my LinkedIn profile, News Editor, Light Reading

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About the Author(s)

Iain Morris

International Editor, Light Reading

Iain Morris joined Light Reading as News Editor at the start of 2015 -- and we mean, right at the start. His friends and family were still singing Auld Lang Syne as Iain started sourcing New Year's Eve UK mobile network congestion statistics. Prior to boosting Light Reading's UK-based editorial team numbers (he is based in London, south of the river), Iain was a successful freelance writer and editor who had been covering the telecoms sector for the past 15 years. His work has appeared in publications including The Economist (classy!) and The Observer, besides a variety of trade and business journals. He was previously the lead telecoms analyst for the Economist Intelligence Unit, and before that worked as a features editor at Telecommunications magazine. Iain started out in telecoms as an editor at consulting and market-research company Analysys (now Analysys Mason).

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