ZTE's all-band beamforming and ISAC solutions win Light Reading's Leading Lights Awards 2025

Shenzhen, China, September 23, 2025 - ZTE Corporation (0763.HK / 000063.SZ), a global leading provider of information and communication technology solutions, has been named the winner of two prestigious awards in Light Reading's 21st Leading Lights Awards: the "Most Innovative RAN Product or Solution" for its all-band beamforming suite and "Outstanding Use Case: 5G/6G Innovation" for its groundbreaking integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) solutions in low-altitude economic applications.

Maximizing efficiency across every band

All-band beamforming suite, a comprehensive portfolio of advanced hardware solutions designed to maximize the performance and economics of mobile networks. This suite provides operators with a holistic strategy for deploying intelligent beamforming across all mainstream FDD and TDD bands with 2G to 5G all-RAT capabilities, delivering radical improvements in spectral efficiency, operational simplicity, and total cost of ownership (TCO).

The suite's innovations address core operator challenges through three key pillars:

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  Maximized spectral efficiency: By generating and precisely steering multiple independent beams simultaneously across low-, mid-, and high-band spectrum, the suite optimizes bandwidth to deliver unparalleled capacity. AI integrated directly into the hardware intelligently adapts network parameters in real-time, boosting capacity by up to 30%.

   

   

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  Superior performance for legacy infrastructure: The suite uniquely empowers existing network investments. Its intelligent antenna hardware augments deployed RRUs, enabling them to perform dynamic beamforming to extend coverage and enhance user signal strength without a full site overhaul.

   

   

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  Radically minimized TCO: Groundbreaking hardware innovations drive significant cost savings. Constant Power Amplifier Efficiency technology slashes energy consumption, while multi-band radios consolidate multiple frequency bands into single, compact units. This reduces physical footprint, site rental fees, and capital expenditure.

   

   

   

Shaping the future of low-altitude economy

As the world actively explores new economic growth drivers, the low-altitude economy has emerged as a key focus area. Leveraging its 5G-A ISAC technology, ZTE is driving technological breakthroughs, commercial implementation, and ecosystem collaboration to support the sector's development.

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  Technologically, ZTE has pioneered the monostatic and network deployment of ISAC base stations, introduced dual-waveform smart sensing technology, and launched the industry's first super vertical angle AAU with sensing capabilities covering altitudes of 0-600 meters. The company's "multi-modal integration sensing technology" enhances target identification accuracy while reducing missed detections and false alarms.

   

   

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  Commercially, ZTE has partnered with operators and third-party partners to complete over 100 commercial and pilot projects in low-altitude sector. For example, in Anyang, Henan Province, ZTE and China Unicom leveraged 5G-A ISAC technology to support drone blood delivery, achieving a 60% improvement in delivery efficiency. This project was honored with the GLOMO Award at MWC 2025.

   

   

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  Ecologically, ZTE has taken a leadership role by establishing a low-altitude industry platform with over 30 partner enterprises. This initiative integrates resources across the industrial chain and promotes technological co-creation, scenario exploration, and shared market development, fostering continued growth across the low-altitude economy.

   

  Source: LightReading