Indonesian mobile operator, Smartfren in collaboration with ZTE has begun trials of the Massive MIMO antenna and Multi-Antenna Space Division Multiple Access (SDMA) technology. The trial is part of the Operator's effort to improve its 4G Advanced network and to bring its technology readiness towards the 5G.
"These trials also all our preparations towards 5G era," said Chief Technology Officer Smartfren, Christian Daigneault in a statement. According to him, with the latest technologies, customers can enjoy faster network speeds of up to 400Mbps.
The Massive MIMO technology can improve the efficiency of wireless spectrum by having up to 64 antennas per base station, making it capable of expanding the network coverage of up to 5 Km.
Currently the new Massive MIMO pilot is taking place in the cities of Jakarta and Surabaya. Smartfren plans to implement the technology to 100 other locations by the third quarter of this year.
Both companies have also worked together to introduce several new technologies on SmartFren's LTE Advanced network, including the Carrier Aggregation technology.
In a separate news, Huawei and China Unicom said this week that they have completed field verification of FDD-based Massive MIMO antenna technology.
