[Amsterdam, the Netherlands, July 7, 2014]: Huawei, a leading global information and communication technology (ICT) solutions provider, announced today that it has successfully concluded the 2014 premier global LTE 450 event in Amsterdam with the support and involvement of the 450 Alliance, to sustain dialogue on the development of LTE 450MHz.
Over 450 industry leading organization representatives from around the world attended this event, including mobile operators, government regulatory agencies, industry analyst firms, and chipset and device manufacturers. At this event, conference participants embraced and discussed the developments in LTE 450MHz, spectrum regulation, migration strategies, ecosystem maturity, market opportunities, Machine to Machine (M2M), and business collaborations. A key outcome of this event was the mutual understanding and appreciation of the high value potential of LTE 450MHz and its ability to enable opportunities such as affordable network deployments; wider audience coverage and greater base station range including a complete ecosystem with end-to-end support.
One of the key advantages of LTE 450 MHz is its low frequency coverage and low cost of network construction, it can immediately be applied to large enterprises, including airports, agriculture, oil exploration and mining. This enables a wide range of affordable services including trunking, monitoring, and data communications. LTE 450MHz will play an increasingly important role in ensuring achievement of early and long-term M2M market opportunities.
One of the highlights of the event was the announcement of Ukkoverkot’s partnership with Huawei on deploying the world’s first commercial LTE 450, by Kari Lehtinen, CTO of Ukkoverkot. Huawei and Ukkoverkot aim to provide national coverage of LTE 450MHz by the end of 2014 to achieve the widest coverage LTE network in Finland.
Throughout the event, a key focus of the discussion was on the need for the global harmonization of 450MHz spectrum which would ensure a shared ecosystem for chipsets and terminals. Conference attendees also reached a consensus arguing that the availability of low-cost terminals would greatly promote further rapid development of the LTE 450MHz industry. At this event, numerous operators unanimously agreed on working together to increase more affordable global production of LTE 450MHz devices. As a leading end-to-end supporter of the industry, Huawei also highlighted its 450MHz roadmap and latest LTE 450MHz solutions. In his welcome remarks, William Wang Jun, President of LTE Product Line, Huawei said, “We are very pleased to support the development of the LTE 450 ecosystem by gathering key players in the LTE industry chain to engage in the exchange of ideas and discussion of the many considerable advantages of this valuable spectrum. Huawei believes that 450MHz is an important standard for LTE network deployment. This, in turn, will contribute to economic and social development, and promote digital inclusion in developing countries.”
In his closing remarks, Igor Virker, Chairman of the 450 Alliance said, “This global seminar is an event that influences the industry as a whole. LTE 450MHz technology has tremendous potential to become an important tool for providing access to broadband services in rural and remote areas.”