Huawei, ZTE showcase futuristic 5G technologies at CES
The 5G, or fifth-generation, ambitions of China’s top telecom-equipment-makers — Huawei and ZTE — are on display this week at the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas.
ZTE took its 5G Future Tunnel along to the expo to show visitors how the technology will change people’s lives.
For Huawei, 5G innovations made it into the keynote speech that launched the Mate 10 Pro smartphone, which features the world’s fastest “4.5G or pre-5G experience”.
5G is the next frontier in mobile networks and wireless communica- tions, and transfer.
“China wants to be the leader, not a follower in 5G,” said Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei’s consumer products division, who gave the keynote speech. “We were behind in 3G development, but we caught up with others in 4G and will be the global leader of the ICT (information and communications technology) industry in the era of 5G.”
“China has attached great importance to 5G development,” said Cheng Lixin, CEO of ZTE Mobile Devices. “We are speeding up our development this year, accelerating steps to gain a lead in the race toward commercializing the next-generation communication technology.”
China prioritized 5G in its 13th will feature faster data Five-Year Plan (2016-20), with the aim of commercializing the new technology by 2020. The country is expected to become the world’s largest 5G market by 2025, according to a report released by GSMA Intelligence, a global mobile think tank, and the China Information and Communications Technology Academy.
“The impact of 5G is groundbreaking and will accelerate innovation in all of the technologies we showcase at CES, from smart home and appliances, drones and robotics to self-driving vehicles and smart city technologies,” said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of the Consumer Technology Association, in a news release. Companies such as Qualcomm, Nokia, Ericsson, Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of the Consumer Technology Association Intel and Samsung are also emphasizing 5G at their CES exhibitions.
Both Huawei and ZTE said they are working with the country’s three telecommunications network operators — China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom — in testing those technologies and helping plan their 5G infrastructure deployment.
“We are speeding up our precommercial testing for 5G in China, Europe, Japan and the United States now, and next year we will launch our 5G phones,” Yu said.
ZTE has also invested heavily in 5G research and development since 2009. Its pre-5G-related products and solutions have so far been deployed in more than 115 networks across more than 60 countries, Cheng said.
“5G is also one of the driving factors of augmented reality and virtual reality development — to achieve true immersion and to support the view of 4K ultra-high-definition video streaming; 4G is not enough,” Yu said. “And more importantly, 5G is the key to self-driving car development — its sophisticated communications systems will rely on a fast, reliable network that’s capable of being a data superhighway.”
Both companies are keen to help formulate 5G global standards and promote its commercial use.
“With the rapid development of 5G, the internet of everything will become possible soon — so everything could be connected anytime and anywhere,” Yu said.
The impact of 5G is groundbreaking and will accelerate innovation in all of the technologies we showcase at CES ... ”