The 4G network has become a standard telecommunication solution in most countries, and big companies are already working towards creating a 5G ecosystem to boost the next wave of connectivity. Huawei is one of the key players in the new spectrum and announced its 5G ambitions at the company's global analyst summit in Shenzhen Tuesday.
Huawei's Rotating Chairman Eric Xu spoke about the company's plans to invest in 5G and launch an end-to-end 5G solution by the second half of this year. As for the consumers' interest, Xu said the company plans to launch its first 5G smartphone in the second half of 2019.
"5G is just another product line at Huawei. It is a natural evolution of the technology -- from 2G to 3G to 4G and now 5G," Xu said at the gathering.
Huawei's timeline to release its first 5G smartphone points towards the Mate 30, which is expected to be the next flagship in line for next year.
Big news:
— Neil Shah (@neiltwitz) April 17, 2018
First @Huawei 5G smartphone with its own 5G chipset coming in 2H 2019. Which mostly points to the Mate series.#HAS2018 pic.twitter.com/8k5qThGEmp
Before the 5G smartphone makes its debut, Huawei is expected to launch the first 5G mobile hotspot in the second quarter of next year. Huawei's presence at the MWC 2018 was highlighted by the showcasing of Balong 5G01 modem, which will be at the core of the said hotspot device. Both 5G-powered smartphone and hotspot devices will be developed in-house by Huawei.
4G vs 5G
While we are still in the 4G era, Huawei's 5G rollout could be ground-breaking in the tech industry. According to Xu, 5G will bring faster speeds and lower the networking costs. But Xu also noted that there's no fundamental difference between 4G and 5G, except for faster speeds that consumers will enjoy.
"We don't have other material differences in experiences for the consumer between the two technologies," IANS quoted Xu as saying in a statement.
5G trials in progress
The big enterprises working on 5G is no secret. Huawei has partnered with India's leading telco provider, Bharti Airtel, and conducted 5G network trials under a test setup at Airtel's Network Experience Centre in India.
Theoretically, 5G network speeds can surpass 10Gb per second, which is 1000 times more the current 4G standard (100Mb per second). In addition, the exceptionally low latency paired with incredible speeds can bolster the new-age applications and Internet-of-Things (IoT) that require massive spectrum bandwidth to work flawlessly.
During Huawei-Airtel trials, the setup was able to hit more than 3Gbps.
"We have been focusing on developing 5G ecosystem and use cases and the show with Bharti Airtel impressively demonstrates the performance capability of 5G in 3.5 GHz band," Emmanuel Coelho Alves, Director of wireless marketing at Huawei HQ, said in a statement.
Jay Chen, CEO, Huawei India, had said that India will be receiving 5G at the same time as the global timeline. Besides Huawei, Nokia and ZTE have been working towards robust 5G deployment.
