April 16, 2010 - Nokia Siemens Networks has inaugurated a TD-LTE Open Lab at its Hangzhou R&D facility. The first such lab in the industry aims to provide practical know-how that will help telecom operators and TD-LTE device manufacturers across the globe deploy commercial TD-LTE quicker. Major TD-LTE smartphone and terminal manufacturers can use the lab to test the interoperability and functionality of their devices across TD-LTE networks.

“The development of terminals and devices has always been a bottleneck in the roll-out of new mobile technology,” said Mr. Sha Yuejia, vice president of China Mobile. “We are thus more than happy to see that Nokia Siemens Networks has established a cutting-edge terminal testing environment, an initiative that we support wholeheartedly. After all, a healthy ecosystem needs efforts from all stakeholders.”

Nokia Siemens Networks’ Open Lab will provide an end-to-end testing environment for verifying the compatibility of terminals and devices with the company’s TD-LTE network products and solutions. The lab will also provide consultancy and testing services to device manufacturers. Nokia Siemens Networks’ TD-LTE R&D center in Hangzhou is fully integrated into the company’s global network of LTE Centers of Competence. It is an ideal location for the new Open Lab, as the company can use the R&D center’s existing competencies, resources and assets to speed deployment of TD-LTE.

“This initiative will facilitate the holistic development of TD-LTE technology,” said Wang Tong, chief technology officer of Samsung China. “We are working hard to build-up the TD-LTE ecosystem. TD-LTE Open Lab will provide us with a common testing platform to prove the interoperability of our terminals with its networks before commercial rollout.”

“We are at the forefront of driving TD-LTE deployments, as we were the first to conduct a call fully compliant with the 3GPP Release 8 (March 09 baseline) standard using commercial network hardware,” said Zhang Zhiqiang, president of the Greater China Region at Nokia Siemens Networks. “The TD-LTE Open Lab is a key cooperation initiative that will help us align our solutions with major user equipment vendors and ensure that our networks fully interoperate with their devices for the benefit of all TD-LTE operators.”