[Shenzhen, China, December 8, 2015] Huawei and China Unicom have announced that the Huawei Active Antenna Unit (AAU) solution will be commercially deployed in China’s Xinjiang Province to build out Xinjiang Unicom’s mobile broadband (MBB) network.

Xinjiang Unicom is committed to providing leading-edge mobile data services and the best possible user experience to its subscribers. The first priority of Xinjiang Unicom’s network deployment strategy is completing 4G network coverage in urban areas as quickly as possible. However, due to ongoing construction, comprehensive coverage by the 3G network remains inadequate in some areas so Xinjiang Unicom faces a double challenge: to simultaneously provide the best 4G network performance and also to improve inadequate 3G network coverage in urban areas.

Huawei’s wideband AAU solution perfectly meets the demands of the Xinjiang Unicom network. First, the industry-leading 365MHz wideband technology in Huawei’s AAU solution supports both 4G and 3G networks. Its radio function evolved from 3G to 4G without additional hardware investment so that operators can quickly launch LTE carrier aggregation on 1800MHz and 2100MHz. Second, Huawei’s AAU integrates Radio Unit and Antenna functions to deliver benefits for tower site construction, such as eliminating the need for cable connection, waterproofing the Radio Unit and Antenna, and eliminating PIM (Passive intermodulation) issues. Finally, the AAU cuts the need for hardware components by 66%, so it can significantly reduce the site rental costs and make towers more safely.

“Huawei’s AAU solution meets all of our needs,” said Xie Fanghong, manager of Xinjiang Unicom’s network construction department. “This solution helps us speed deployment of the 4G network, and at the same time significantly improves 3G network coverage which brings the best user experience on both 4G and 3G networks.”

To date, the Huawei AAU solution has been put through trials and commercially deployed by 70 operators in China, Europe, Canada, Russia, as well as countries in the Middle East and South America.”