ZTE Corporation and Airtel Group have announced the successful commercial deployment of an FDD+TDD Massive MIMO solution on Airtel Gabon’s live network, marking a milestone in Gabon’s mobile network development and preparations for future 5G services.
The deployment combines Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) and Time Division Duplex (TDD) spectrum bands through a single Active Antenna Unit (AAU). The solution is designed to improve spectrum utilisation, increase network capacity, streamline deployment and enhance energy efficiency while supporting the evolution of existing 4G infrastructure towards 5G.
The initiative comes as Gabon experiences growing demand for mobile broadband and digital services, including digital finance, e-government, online education, cloud computing and digital entertainment. These services are increasing pressure on telecommunications operators to expand capacity, improve coverage and maintain service quality while managing energy consumption.
According to the companies, the deployment has delivered measurable improvements in network performance. Compared with the previous configuration, the solution increased user throughput by 107%, traffic capacity by 20% and Physical Resource Block (PRB) utilisation efficiency by 41% at the site level.
At the 2.6 GHz layer, user throughput improved by 86%, traffic capacity increased by 92% and PRB utilisation efficiency rose by 60%.
The technology coordinates multiple frequency bands and optimises network resources, allowing operators to make better use of existing spectrum assets while creating a pathway towards future 5G deployment.
Razvan Ungureanu, Chief Technology Officer at Airtel Africa, said the deployment demonstrated the value of the collaboration with ZTE and its focus on improving spectrum efficiency, network capacity and customer experience.
Lv Xun, Managing Director of ZTE’s Airtel Global Account, said the successful commercial deployment represented an important milestone in the partnership and highlighted the role of wireless innovation in improving service performance.
The project is the first wireless deployment jointly delivered by ZTE and Airtel Gabon. Both companies intend to continue collaborating on more efficient and future-ready network infrastructure across Africa.
The deployment supports Gabon’s broader digital transformation ambitions by strengthening mobile connectivity and establishing a foundation for the development of 5G services.
