Generally known as a 5G transport network, the Huawei-built infrastructure will permit China Mobile Zhejiang roll out the next generation communication services promising faster data downloads, both companies reported on the sidelines of the MWC Shanghai technology conference.

 

This comes as China plans for the commercial rollout of 5G services Oct. 1, state media China Daily revealed last month, quoting an industry player. China Mobile Zhejiang and Huawei have collaborated on a 5G transport network since 2016 and built China's largest pilot project in 2018.

 

China Mobile is one of the four carriers in the country that clinched a 5G operating license not too long ago. It later awarded network equipment contracts to operators including domestic companies Huawei and ZTE and also Finland's Nokia and Ericsson of Sweden. The carrier said it will offer 5G commercial services in over 50 cities this year by using 50,000 base stations to be built all over China.

 

Such expensive stand-alone architecture could support running the current 4G and 5G services at exactly the same time, removing the complexity of mobile network integration, said GSMA Intelligence, a U.K.-based mobile communications researcher. Operators also are looking at upgrading existing 4G infrastructure.

 

Operators in Asia will spend $370 billion in 5G network rollouts through 2025, GSMA projected in a freshly released report. China will get to 460 million 5G connections during that period, the researcher said, outstripping the U.S. and Europe.

 

Chinese users perhaps will pay 10% to 15% more compared with the current 4G subscription but for much greater bandwidth, said GSMA analyst Jan Stryjak. The forecast is based on South Korea, which launched 5G services earlier this year.

 

U.S. semiconductor giant Qualcomm said the impending 5G rollout will put China in the 'front line of mobile technology even though the country was behind others in launching 3G and 4G technologies.' 'We are ready to work with our partners in 5G,' Frank Meng, chairman of Qualcomm China, told MWC conference attendees, counting Chinese phone makers Lenovo, Vivo, Xiaomi and ZTE among its customers.

 

The transition from 4G to 5G also will fuel demand for optical fiber deployment, a vital infrastructure in mobile technology connections, said Yangtze Optical Fibre, or YOFC, the world's largest fiber company.

 

Dan Zhuang, the group's president, informed the MWC conference that global demand for fiber will rise to 650 million km over the next five years, from the current 519 million km. 'Only stand-alone infrastructure can support all 5G applications, and this will lead to greater demand for fiber,' he said.

 

For the time being, the race to roll out 5G could worsen the 'geopolitical storm' that followed the U.S. sanctions constricting access to American technology for Chinese companies such as Huawei, said Dev Lewis, an analyst with Digital Asia Hub, a Hong Kong-based non-for-profit think tank.

 

Regional economies with poor cutting-edge technology will really need to depend on countries like China or the U.S. for 5G rollout, raising the risk of data breaches, Lewis said.

 

To prevent such risk, these countries could ban together - such as through the Association of Southeast Asian Nations - to develop collective bargaining power and set a higher standard for 5G, he said.

 

Source: Tronserve