In Pakistan, Zong and Huawei Deploy a Macro+Micro Integrated Coverage Solution

Recently in Pakistani cities such as the capital Islamabad and Karachi, Zong deployed Huawei's FDD Book RRU solution to encompass both macro and micro network coverage in special scenarios. These deployments demonstrate the practicability of this small, lightweight solution, characterized by high energy efficiency and flexible deployment. For underserved areas, particularly those short of site resources, these capabilities can improve in-depth coverage, user experience, and network capacity and fill coverage holes or enhance hotspots within a short window of delivery.

In Pakistan, operators have been grappling with weak coverage in scenarios like markets, residential areas, and office buildings due to the long distances between macro base station sites. To make matters worse, in these areas, site resources are often scarce, sites are difficult to come by, or property coordination is complicated. Consequently, the deployment of macro base stations is almost invariably difficult and time-consuming.

The innovative solution that Huawei and Zong settled on makes good use of Huawei's Book RRU while also making the most of Zong's installed base of optical fibers and existing transmission resources of ambient macro base stations. To improve user experience, Book RRUs are deployed on walls or poles in areas underserved by macro sites. For example, after Book RRUs were deployed inside an office building in Karachi (as shown in the following figure), the traffic volume grew by 13%, coverage improved to an impressive 37.4 dB (from –1.22 dB), and the user-perceived speed went up to 171 Mbps from 4.8 Mbps. Users were also impressed by the speed of the deployment, which took less than half a day.

Book RRU deployed in Karachi, Pakistan

For the purpose of addressing network pain points and challenges, Zong and Huawei have partnered in technology innovations across many fields, including GigaGreen FDD 8T8R, FDD Massive MIMO, and Book RRU. They are keen to develop macro-micro collaboration solutions to drive data traffic growth and quickly improve coverage. Zong and Huawei's partnerships will continue in the foreseeable future as they work to further improve network performance and build a high-quality mobile network for users in Pakistan.