Huawei Technologies Co has unveiled its new 5G solution for businesses, as the Chinese tech giant aims to scale up the application of the super-fast wireless technology in a greater variety of sectors.
Ding Yun, president of Huawei's carrier business group, said building on its experience in connectivity, computing, and industry digitalization, Huawei has worked with operators and other industry partners to develop a one-stop solution that covers sales, operations, and services – the 5GtoB solution.
This solution will simplify transactions for enterprise users, help operators monetize their network capabilities, and allow partners to innovate more efficiently, creating new value for every player involved, Ding said at the company's "5G Brings New Value" forum held at the ongoing Mobile World Congress Shanghai 2021, a major exhibition for the international communications industry, which will conclude on Thursday.
The 5G industry has been developing faster than expected, with operators already seeing commercial returns from the first wave of 5G rollouts.
The 5G user base and the number of 5G devices in commercial use have exploded since 2019.
Huawei said by the end of 2020, 380 5G devices had hit the market, eight times more than there were the year before. The mobile 5G user base had also reached 220 million, and wireless home broadband connections reached 1.05 million, a 17 and 21 times year-on-year increase, respectively. Ding said these numbers will triple in 2021.
The prices of 5G phones are also dropping rapidly. There are already multiple units on the market priced at under $150 and about 30 mid-range and low-end phones priced below $300. According to Ding, the 5G mobile phone ecosystem will become as mature as 4G over the next one to two years as network rollouts continue and the user base keeps growing.
In the markets that deployed 5G first, operators have already begun reaping commercial returns. In China and South Korea, operator revenue continued to increase as their 5G user base grew faster than in other countries. Finnish operator DNA and Saudi operator Zain also achieved impressive financial results in the early phases of their commercial 5G deployment.
Ding said that Huawei has worked with operators, partners, and enterprise users to apply the 5GtoB solution first in the steel industry. With their capabilities and experience embedded into this platform, industrial 5G solutions like automated billet rotation, augmented-reality-assisted remote assembly, and steel surface quality inspection, can be standardized and rapidly replicated.
At the end of his speech, Ding emphasized that industry digitalization will be a huge market, but that digital infrastructure developments vary greatly across industries and application scenarios also vary. In addition, related digital standards are not in place yet.
The senior executive called on all industry players to work together to establish comprehensive 5GtoB standards and ecosystem to drive further industry digitalization, while reiterating Huawei's commitment to investing in ecosystem and standards and supporting industry digitalization.