ZTE beginning LTE trial networks out West

ZTE, better known in the U.S. market as a handset vendor, said it is working with a small regional operator to deploy LTE trial networks in parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

The Chinese vendor is working with Commnet Wireless, a subsidiary almost wholly owned by Atlantic Tele-Network (which is separately in the process of buying former Alltel assets from Verizon Wireless). The carrier has sparse GSM and CDMA coverage in parts of Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico and Utah, and other parts of the Western United States.

ZTE, which so far has made few inroads as an infrastructure vendor in the North American market, is using its core dual-mode CDMA/LTE platform for the networks. Xiangyang Jiang, executive president of ZTE North America, said in a statement that the company is committed to working with carriers for LTE deployments.

ZTE so far has managed to ship phones to the likes of MetroPCS in the United States.

John Champagne, Commnet's vice president of planning and development, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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