IN BRIEF (Page 6)

ZTE inks deal with SoftBank

Chinese telecommunications equipment maker ZTE Corp said on Friday it has struck a deal with SoftBank Corp to deploy its "pre-5G" technology in Japan, with commercial trials set to begin early next year. ZTE has touted its "pre-5G" technology as providing faster speeds on the 4G network. It sees this as an intermediate step between current 4G technology and 5G, the next generation of networks that the wireless industry is hoping to have up and running by 2020. ZTE Vice-President Li Cui said the company plans to establish a research and development center for wireless technologies in Tokyo by the end of 2015, but declined to say how much it planned to invest in Japan.

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