ZTE South Africa has announced that the ZTE Corporation - an international provider of telecommunications, enterprise and consumer technology solutions for the mobile internet - has completed a 5G Call, internet and WeChat connection.

In a statement released by ZTE, the company said its ZTE Mobile Devices division is expected to launch its first commercial 5G smartphone within the first half of 2019. It previously announced to "unveil a 5G smartphone and experimental product of 5G CPE by the end of 2018".

In April 2018, ZTE demonstrated the first 5G call using the 3GPP R15 global standard. ZTE Mobile Devices completed the 5G call with a ZTE smartphone and a ZTE CPE device via a simulation system in its Shanghai R&D Centre at the end of October.

ZTE Mobile Devices made the 5G Internet and WeChat connection on a ZTE smartphone via the same simulation system.

"At present, the frequency band that 5G smartphones support is mainly sub6G, whereas ZTE Mobile Devices' industry-leading Antenna-integrated solution supports full coverage from the sub6G to the millimetre waves, including plentiful combinations of CA and EN-DC, meeting the requirements of mainstream carriers around the world," reads the company's statement.

The company said it continues to make progress on 5G Data Service Testing and "additional multi-scenario R&D tests are expected to be conducted in December."

ZTE has carried out 5G trials based on 5G end-to-end solutions.

In March 2018 ZTE and mobile operator MTN initiated trials on 5G within the MEA region, including field and laboratory tests of 5G Ne Radio, DevOps, 5G virtual network partition and Virtual Evolved Packet Core (vEPC).