Three Hong Kong announced plans for a series of network upgrades over the next few years to boost its network capacity and coverage to meet rising customer demand for data and prepare for the high-speed and high-capacity 5G era.
The coming 5G era will enable virtual reality, augmented reality and Internet of Things (IoT) applications, driving data usage to new heights, said Three in a statement.
Completing the re-farming of 2100 MHz spectrum in 2H 2017, with planned deployment of CA technology with 5CC by year-end. Maximum network speed can reach over 1.2Gbps with compatible handsets.
Three said it is currently the only mobile operator in Hong Kong with 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz and 2600 MHz spectrums in service. The Operator has been re-farming spectrum to maximise bandwidth efficiency as customer data usage patterns change in recent years. Having already re-farmed its 900 MHz spectrum for 4G last year, it intends to complete the re-farming of its 2100 MHz spectrum for 4G service in the second half of this year. By that time, all five bands of spectrum will be available for 4G service, meeting customers’ increasing demand for data services.
Against this backdrop, 3 Hong Kong will leverage CA technology to deploy an evolved network with 5CC. This will give customers a superior mobile service experience. To provide the necessary higher bandwidth, Three will combine 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz x2 and 2600 MHz spectrums with Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) and Time Division Duplex (TDD) 5CC CA technology, along with 4 × 4 MIMO and 256 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) technology. It plans to launch this technology on its network by the end of 2017.
At the same time, Three is also developing Massive MIMO technology, which serves to enhance network capacity. A Massive MIMO base station with 2300 MHz TDD was built in Causeway Bay and numerous field tests were conducted on this 5G technology during a large-scale public event. Test results show that Massive MIMO base stations offer more than six times the capacity of traditional 4G base stations with the same spectrum specifications on a TDD single carrier of 20 MHz bandwidth.
Three plans to continue the deployment of this technology in prime locations within the year, and will work closely with Huawei to explore the feasibility of deploying FDD Massive MIMO to enhance spectrum efficiency.
Cliff Woo Chiu-man, Executive Director and CEO of HTHKH
In addition to using CA technology with 5CC, we have conducted research and carried out trials for various technologies, such as small cell installations, network cloudification, network function virtualisation (NFV) and Massive MIMO towards the 5G era. These efforts will enable the timely launch of services to meet market demand as soon as the 5G standard and Hong Kong’s spectrum plans are confirmed.
Dr Zhou Yuefeng, CMO, Wireless Network Product Line, Huawei
Network cloudification has been a recent focus for us, as this is a prerequisite for the future deployment of 5G networks. We have gained extensive experience in network cloudification and commercial applications of the technology.
