Maxis, Huawei rev up shift to 5G with TechCity

Maxis and Huawei Malaysia have begun scaling up the 4G network to prepare for a seamless transition to 5G, following their TechCity partnership which was formalised early this year.

Maxis selected key areas in Kuala Lumpur to conduct trials with Huawei, with a focus to increase 4G capacity and user experience, enable fast 5G deployment, and achieve optimisation of network resources -– all of which will prepare for 5G deployment once spectrum is made available. 

Through the programme, Maxis joins global leading operators in having closer R&D collaboration and access to the latest development of 5G applications. Huawei’s TechCity had already launched in leading cities such as London, Seoul and Tokyo. 

Maxis undertook the first trial of a new radio solution in 4G network with FDD (Frequency Division Duplex) massive MIMO to boost radio capacity by providing higher network gains for existing user devices on a live network.

At the same time, Maxis and Huawei successfully completed trials in LTE and New Radio (LNR), using Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) in the 1800MHz frequency. This is an Asia Pacific Region first exploration for sub-3GHz frequency testing, which allows Maxis to reuse existing 4G frequency and equipment to offer 5G in the future, which can increase spectrum efficiency up to 1.5x compared to conventional static refarming. 

“The 5G TechCity programme aims to foster an ecosystem of smart solutions that will be key drivers for the nation’s digital economy and elevate its competitiveness from an Industry 4.0 standpoint,” said Morten Bangsgaard, Maxis chief technology and information officer.

Michael Yuan, Huawei CEO in Malaysia, said TechCity is fundamental to Malaysia’s journey in cultivating a robust ecosystem towards building a digital economy.

The trials represent a continuation of many firsts that Maxis has achieved so far, and a testament to technology leadership. In January this year, Maxis announced a new record at two of its 5G trial sites in Subang Jaya after successfully achieving 2.96Gbps for single user peak speeds, based on the 5G New Radio Carrier Aggregation to showcase single user peak speeds, and the 5G MU-MIMO (multi user MIMO) test to showcase single cell peak speeds due to multiple concurrent user usage. 

In the same month, Maxis successfully conducted Southeast Asia’s first 5G Multi Operator Core Network (MOCN) trial in collaboration with Celcom, achieving peak speeds of more than 1.1Gbps in an outdoor environment at trial sites in Langkawi, Kedah.