ZTE has already shipped over 80,000 5G QCell products worldwide, the company’s vice director of 5G product line, Li Xiaotong told In-Building Tech.
“In addition to China, ZTE’s QCell has also been commercially deployed in a large scale in other Asia-Pacific regions, such as India, Thailand, and Indonesia,” the executive said.
ZTE’s 5G QCell is part of the vendor’s portfolio of solutions for indoor and in-building wireless connectivity.
“In China, there are a large number of buildings (airports, stadiums, large shopping malls) using ZTE’s 5G QCell solution. It not only supports multi-mode and multi-frequency, but also features low power consumption.”
The executive said that the solution can solve the problem of indoor coverage of multiple operators with a one-time deployment. “The building owners also embrace ZTE’s 5G QCell because it can provide indoor positioning, HD video surveillance, gaming, advertisement promotion and other services, thereby serving end users in a fast and stable manner,”Li Xiaotong said.
Commenting on the in-building wireless market in China, the executive said that a growing number of venues are deploying wireless solutions for indoor connectivity.
“The fastest growing demands are in SME scenarios, such as cafes, restaurants and hotels,” said Li Xiaotong. “Unlike large venues, such areas have fewer users and smaller coverage area, but higher requirements for cost and service support. Managers and staff are increasingly aware that the 5G indoor solution for internal communications and services can significantly improve operational efficiency and lower costs, therefore, such demands will emerge and the 5G indoor solution will replace the existing traditional ways of communication,” he added.
He also said that another fast-growing segment is enterprise applications, such as government departments and hospitals. “For such customers, the need for industry-specific services, such as information monitoring, HD video, Internet of Things, outweighs the pressure to reduce costs. The large-scale deployment of these applications will drive the need for 5G indoor coverage.”
ZTE is also working to deploy its QCell solution in sport venues across China.
“QCell solution provides various services, such as video replaying, online ordering, VR gaming, group interaction and fitness information, so as to fully meet the needs of end users,” Li Xiaotong said.
ZTE also offers a distributed antenna solution (DAS) solution, which can be applied in different scenarios than the QCell solution.
“It is challenging for the DAS system to support 5G deployment. Many overseas premise owners are satisfied with the existing 4G and even 3G coverage, and 5G is not an urgent need for them,” Li Xiaotong added. “In this case, ZTE’s DAS solution can be one of their options. However, we believe that more and more customers will accept the 5G indoor solution, considering the popularity of 5G services.”