Huawei’s replacement CEO Ken Hu said the mobile operator has deployed about 260 5G networks around the world, covering almost half of the world’s population.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Chinese vendor Huawei says it is focusing on 5G Advanced, or “5.5G” technology to help carriers maximize the value of their current investments in 5G networks. Ken Hu, Huawei’s Rotating Chairman, made the remarks in a virtual keynote speech. Sessions at Huawei’s 14th Global Mobile Broadband Forum (MBBF) to be held this week in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
“Technology is changing rapidly and new demands are evolving daily. Therefore, our networks must continue to evolve as well. We need to maximize it, which is why we are working hard on 5G-Advanced,” Hu said.
According to Hu, 5G technology has become a new growth engine for mobile operators in the consumer market, with 5G now accounting for the majority of network traffic. In particular, video-based applications are changing consumption habits, and network traffic is increasing three to five times, Hu said, with ARPU increasing by an average of 10 to 25 percent.
In his presentation, Hu highlighted that mobile operators have deployed around 260 5G networks around the world, covering almost half of the world’s population. The executive added that 5G deployment has been much faster than 4G, with about 1.5 billion connections worldwide in just over four years.
“Over the past four years, we have identified key scenarios for industrial applications such as remote control, video backhaul, machine vision, and positioning that can maximize the value of 5G,” Hu added. “We have also identified industries such as mining, ports, and manufacturing that can scale up 5G capabilities.”
Meanwhile, in a separate keynote speech, Li Peng, Huawei’s Corporate Senior Vice President and President of the vendor’s Telecommunications Business Group, spoke to global carriers and the industry about future service offerings provided by 5G Advanced. He called for action to be taken towards this goal.
“We are already on the right path to 5G business success, and 5G-Advanced is the natural next step in the evolution of 5G,” said Mr. Lee.
According to Li, future mobile networks will have six key features: 10 Gbps downlink, 1 Gbps uplink, deterministic networking, support for 100 billion IoT connections, integrated sensing and communication, and native AI capabilities. I need the functionality. He said carriers and industry stakeholders are looking to expand capabilities in three key usage scenarios: enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), massive machine type communications (mMTC), and ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC). There is a need for continuous enhancement as well as the development of new capabilities such as Uplink Centric Broadband Communications (UCBC) and Real-Time Broadband Communications (RTBC).
Regarding the development of future 5G-Advanced networks, Li said the industry will work together to accelerate the development of an ecosystem of devices and applications, validate use case scenarios, and develop large-scale commercial applications for FWA, passive IoT, and RedCap. He emphasized the need to accelerate the transition.
5G-Advanced will be specified in 3GPP releases 18, 19, and 20, after which 3GPP’s work will focus on 6G, which will hit the market around 2030.
At the 2023 Mobile World Congress Shanghai, Huawei announced plans to launch a commercial “5.5G” network equipment set within the next year.
Huawei also highlighted that it is collaborating with multiple companies in the industry in the research, development and validation of key “5.5G” technologies, and has partnered with more than 30 companies around the world in technology validation and application pilots of these technologies. It added that it is working with carriers.
