ZTE offers first commercially ready 5G model

ZTE Corp on Tuesday released its 5G smartphone — making the telecommunications giant the first vendor to offer a commercially ready 5G model.

Shenzhen-listed ZTE launched its Axon 10 Pro in Fuzhou, where a trial 5G commercial network is available. The model features a specially-designed 5G system of 10 antennas compared with 7 for 4G.

About 2 percent of smartphones sold in China this year will be 5G — or estimated 8 million units, said Xu Feng, Senior Vice President of ZTE and President of the Mobile Device Division.

China will issue 5G licenses later this year.

Other Chinese brands including Huawei, Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi have also announced or released 5G models.

But ZTE's Axon 10 Pro has been tested for all three Chinese carriers, which makes it the first commercially ready 5G model in China, said ZTE.

By March, ZTE had obtained about 1,000 patents on 5G. It has 5G partnerships with 40 mobile carriers globally. It will release the new 5G model in Europe, the Middle East and the Asia Pacific regions, said Xu.

In 2018, ZTE reported full-year operating revenue of 85.5 billion yuan (US$12.8 billion), a drop of 21.4 percent, mainly due to a US ban on certain  tech components which forced the company to stop production for several months until a fine of US$1 billion was paid.