Huawei calls for cooperation on 5G development

Chinese tech giant Huawei has called on the global ICT industry to work hand in hand for next stage 5G development and exploration of new ways for further advancement.

Huwaei’s Rotating Chairman Ken Hu came up with the call while addressing the 12th Global Mobile Broadband Forum on Wednesday, said a press release.

In his keynote speech, Hu also outlined three areas of opportunity that will drive the next stage of 5G’s growth, including XR services, the B2B market, and low-carbon development.

There are currently 176 commercial 5G networks around the globe, serving more than 500 million subscribers. In the consumer space, average 5G download speeds are roughly 10 times greater than 4G, which has fueled broader adoption of applications like VR and 360º broadcasting.

In the enterprise space, there are already 10,000 projects exploring B2B applications of 5G (5GtoB) around the world. 5G applications in industries like manufacturing, mining, and ports have already passed the trial and are being replicated at scale.

While progress has been steady, Hu noted that there are still some areas for improvement. “Right now, more than half of these 10,000 5GtoB projects are in China. We have a huge number of use cases already, but we need to build more sustainable business cases.”

He went on to speak of broader changes that will have a long-term impact on the ICT industry, including accelerated digital transformation caused by the pandemic, how cloud and AI have become must-haves for all organizations, and how the world is taking climate change more seriously.

“These trends provide many opportunities for our industry. But they also create some challenges. There are a few things we can do to get ready,” he said.

The Huawei boss also said the industry needs to get networks, devices, and content ready for explosive growth in extended reality (XR). To support a smooth cloud-based XR experience, networks need to provide download speeds faster than 4.6 Gbit/s with latency no greater than 10 milliseconds. Hu also noted that his company last year released its goals for 5.5G and reaffirmed his committment to achieve those.