A grand opening ceremony of Ethio telecom – ZTE Joint Innovation Center was held on the 4th of March 2019 in Telecom Excellence Academy (TExA) in the presence of officials including ZTE Group’s Chairman Mr. Li Zixue and Ethio telecom’s CEO Frehiwot Tamru along with high-level officials from both institutions.
The agreement to establish the center dates back to July 31, 2017 when the two institutions decided to further develop their cooperation and collaborative engagement. As per the agreement, ZTE donated and deployed various new technologies worth more than 3 Million USD to Ethio telecom to build the innovation center.
The center, with a Lab Exhibition Hall, is located in the premises of the academy which is equipped with Mobile Broadband (MBB), Fixed Broadband (FBB), Core network NFV, IP, BSS/OSS, Rich Communication Service (RCS) and IPTV facilities.
Following the inaugural ceremony, the two parties have also signed a Memorandum of Understanding for future cooperation with the aims of maximizing the use and operation of the center and other related areas.
The center is expected to serve Ethio telecom to undertake verification on new technologies, test on products and services, organize seminars, workshops and conferences that foster an open and inclusive learning environment and conduct research and development in the ICT sector.
The two companies’ partnership goes back to the year 2000. The Next Generation Network (NGN) project and Telecom Expansion Project (TEP) are the major milestones in the partnership.