China Mobile and US operator Clearwire have announced plans to collaborate on interoperability testing for TD-LTE devices.
The operators, as well as the Global TD-LTE Initiative (GTI), announced they have agreed to common test specifications for devices in the global TD-LTE bands.
Under the agreement, the operators and members of the GTI will establish 4G labs to conduct the interoperability testing simultaneously in the US, China and other international markets.
China Mobile will conduct the testing in Beijing and its other TD-TLE test cities, while Clearwire will test the devices in the US cities of Phoenix and Herndon.
The other markets were not named in the announcement, but the GTI currently has 38 members, including India's Bharti Airtel, South Korea's SK Telecom and Japan's Softbank.
Clearwire currently operates a Wimax network in the US, sharing its use with Sprint, its largest investor.
But the company plans to deploy a $600 million LTE network, and in September last year adopted the TD-LTE standard for the network after signing a partner deal with China Mobile.
Last week, Sprint revealed it does not plan to market any more Wimax devices, in favor of introducing devices for its separate LTE network. This suggests that the Wimax network is well on the way out.