Telecom NZ to trial 4G
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Telecom NZ to trial 4G

Telecom NZ has partnered with Huawei to trial 4G through 700MHz spectrum in New Zealand

The trial will begin at the end of this month and run on 11 cell sites in three locations, lasting for up to four weeks.

New Zealand is one of the first countries in the world to reallocate a portion of spectrum in the 700MHz band to support mobile broadband.

Telecom and rivals Vodafone and 2degrees were all awarded 4G mobile spectrum in the 700MHz band in an auction in October last year.

In January this year, Telecom won the bid for the final lot of 4G spectrum in the 700MHz band, which was left unsold.

The government is yet to approve the spectrum allocation, and has only approved temporary use of the spectrum for trial purposes.

The incumbent hopes to use the spectrum to speed up its 4G network rollout to rural areas once it is approved.

"To date the network economics across many regional communities have been challenging, but the reallocation of the 700 MHz spectrum for high-speed data networks will speed up the rollout of these essential services significantly," said David Havercroft, CEO of Telecom.



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