World can benefit from China’s 5G push
24 November, 2019
China is expected to have more than 200 million 5G mobile subscribers by 2020, and the fast deployment of 5G in the country will benefit the global telecom and semiconductor industries, a senior executive of Huawei said on Thursday.
Xu Zhijun, rotating chairman of Huawei, said China has the conditions to build the world’s best 5G network and the global telecom industrial chain can benefit from the country’s development, the report said.
“China has the best resources in frequency spectrum and base stations. Local consumers and enterprises have some of the highest enthusiasm and willingness to embrace 5G. And the governments have rolled out favorable policies,” Xu said at the ongoing 2019 World 5G Convention.
Besides, Chinese smartphone vendors account for more than 50% of the global smartphone shipments.
As long as the country makes the best of all the above advantages, it can build the world’s best and largest 5G network, which is conducive to the growth of global telecom equipment makers and semiconductor companies, Xu added.
The large-scale construction of 5G network plan in China has already revived the demand for global telecom equipment, Huawei said.
As telecom carriers around the world are scrambling to roll out their own 5G networks, Xu also highlighted the independence of 5G base stations and 5G core networks.
“Those who said 5G base stations and core networks are inseparable have a ulterior motive,” the senior executive said, adding that global 5G standards have set clearly independent technical standards for the base stations and core networks.
Meanwhile, according to a CNBC report, a top Huawei executive has urged companies to partner with the Chinese tech giant to develop 5G technology applications, saying in a speech that those who do will be the “biggest winners.”
In a keynote address at the Web Summit tech conference in Lisbon, Portugal, Huawei Rotating Chairman Guo Ping highlighted the company’s ambitions to be a global leader in 5G, adding the rollout of the new commercial networks is going “faster than expected.”
The 5G technology aims to bring faster speeds and lower lag times than previous networks like 4G and 3G. In addition to speeding up download times for consumers, 5G has been touted as a possible game-changer in applications like driverless cars and remote surgery that require quick, reliable internet connections.
Guo said the applications and software built on top of 5G “are what generate true value.”
“This is a huge market worth trillions of US dollars,” Guo said. “The biggest winners will be our partners.”
US officials have warned that Huawei’s 5G technology, which includes both software and networking equipment, poses a security threat because it could open a backdoor for Chinese spying. Huawei has repeatedly denied that it would engage in any form of espionage or provide data to the Chinese government.
In May, the US placed Huawei on a blacklist, which forced American companies to get special licenses to do business with the Chinese firm. So far, no licenses have been granted.
In Germany, Angela Merkel is facing a rebellion in her party over the German government’s decision not to formally exclude Huawei from the buildout of its next generation 5G telecoms network, amid rising concern in Berlin at potential security risks, Financial Times reported.
MPs from Merkel’s ruling Christian Democratic Union have put forward a motion for the party’s annual conference this week in Leipzig that would in effect ban the Chinese supplier from the 5G project.
There is also pressure from inside Merkel’s own cabinet to pursue a tougher line on Huawei. Foreign minister Heiko Maas said on Wednesday that when it came to the safety of critical infrastructure, Germany “cannot afford to ignore the political and legal realities that a supplier is subjected to.”