ZTE becomes lead partner in China Unicom IMS Network Project

ZTE has won a bid to become the leading partner in the construction of China Unicom's IMS network.

As part of the project, ZTE will partner with China Unicom to build the provider's IMS network in 10 northern China provinces and cities, including Beijing, Tianjin, Shandong, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Hebei, Henan and others.

In addition, ZTE will reconstruct China Unicom's current fixed network into an IMS network on a large scale, then gradually deploy innovative applications such as VoLTE and RCS(Rich Communication Suite)into thenetwork.

The rebuilt network will eventually develop to a fully-convergent FMC (Fixed Mobile Convergence) architecture, with the overall goal of improving the comprehensive full-service operation capabilities of China Unicom.

"We're proud to work with China Unicom on this project and help facilitate the long-term sustainable development of its IMS network," said Liu Jianhua., ZTE Core Network Product CEO.

"ZTE has long been an active partner of China Unicom, particularly with IMS network construction. In 2009, ZTE took part in a China Unicom IMS lab test. In 2010, during the Group IMS Pilot Project in Shandong, ZTE made the first IMS call for China Unicom and completed all IMS and IOT service tests with a variety of vendors. In 2012, ZTE had excellent scores in all categories of an IMS equipment performance test index held by China Unicom," the company said in a statement.

In October 2011, a ZTE-built network for Qingdao Unicom came into commercial use. It currently supports approximately 400,000 commercial users.