[Barcelona, Spain, February 24, 2019] At Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2019, China Unicom and Huawei will jointly demonstrate the new innovative achievement that the lean GSM network and 5 MHz LTE can be deployed together using the narrow bandwidth based on the CloudAIR dynamic spectrum sharing solution.

With CloudAIR dynamic spectrum sharing technology, when bandwidth is limited, GSM and LTE can be deployed on the same frequency band. This solution prevents abrupt alternations between RATs during spectrum evolution. It allows for a smoother transition from GSM to LTE. In this way, the past investment into legacy GSM networks is not wasted and the competitiveness of LTE bandwidth is ensured. Meanwhile, more users are now able to enjoy high-speed mobile Internet applications, such as WeChat and mobile video applications.

China Unicom and Huawei have been testing CloudAIR dynamic spectrum sharing in the lab in Shanghai, Chengdu, and Beijing since December 2017. In January 2018, the two partners launched a field test in Tianjin. In March 2018, CloudAIR on incumbent equipment was verified in Zhejiang. The large-scale deployment of 12 sites in 10 provinces of China was completed in December 2018. Tests have shown that compared with the traditional solutions, the GL CloudAIR dynamic spectrum sharing technology enabled on the 6 MHz spectrum can increase the available capacity by 33% to 54%, the average daily traffic by more than 20%, and the average rate by over 55%.

Chi Yongsheng, vice president of China Unicom Network Technology Research Institute, said, "The deployment of CloudAIR in multiple scenarios and in multiple provinces shows its maturity for commercial use. China Unicom plans to refarm low frequency bands to build networks that are faster, have more capacity and deliver a better experience, but they also need to preserve current revenues. This solution resolves this apparent contradiction."

As 5G deployment accelerates, more sub-3GHz spectrum resources are going to be refarmed in near future. China Unicom and Huawei will continue working together to research LTE and NR CloudAIR dynamic spectrum sharing.

MWC 2019 is held from February 25 to 28 in Barcelona, Spain. The innovative achievement of CloudAIR is jointly demonstrated by China Unicom and Huawei in Fira Gran Via Hall 1. For more information, please visit http://www.huawei.com/mwc2019/.