SmarTone has switched on its 4G LTE network in Hong Kong on the 1800MHz band. SmarTone’s launch of its LTE network is supported by Ericsson.

‌Nokia, Intel and Verizon are collaborating on new Cloud RAN architectures to provide the flexibility needed for the operator's future services and requirements for 4G, 5G and IoT in the cloud.

NTT DOCOMO announced that it has completed proof-of-concept (PoC) trials verifying the feasibility of network functions virtualization (NFV) while working separately with Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco and NEC. The company has been collaborating with the three vendors on this feasibility verification since November 2013.

Nokia announced that it has received approval from the European Commission for its pending acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent. The proposed acquisition was notified to the European Commission on June 19, 2015 and was cleared on July 24, 2015 without conditions following a Phase 1 review.

Continental, Ericsson, Nissan, NTT DOCOMO, OKI, and Qualcomm plan to carry out their first Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything (C-V2X) trials in Japan. The objective is to validate and demonstrate the benefits of C-V2X using direct communication technology defined by the 3GPP Release 14 specifications. 

U.S. carrier AT&T plans a live, on-site trial demonstration of LTE Broadcast for invited guests during the college football national championship game at AT&T Stadium January 12.

According to a recent annual report by Open Vista, Ericsson and Huawei are top LTE vendors.