Huawei, Unicom deepen 5G alliance

Huawei, Unicom deepen 5G alliance

Beijing, 5/19/2021

China Unicom, a leading Chinese telecommunications operator, is deepening its partnership with Huawei Technologies Co. Their goal: to develop a technology plan for 5G development in the next five years.

Ma Hongbing, general manager of China Unicom’s technology innovation department, said 5G will drive the transformation to a smart society. For the next five years, China Unicom and Huawei will jointly develop a 5G-Advanced – Technology Plan.

China Unicom and Huawei have identified three new industries that will be significant in the future:

– The intelligent new vision for XR virtual interaction.

– the intelligent super-sensor technology for new industries such as high-precision positioning,

– the Internet of Vehicles, drones and intelligent driving.

Ding Yun, president of Huawei’s Carrier Business Group, said China has already built the world’s largest 5G network and the technology will help promote high-quality development. In the future, he said, 5G application scenarios would be

more diverse. Wireless technology also needs to constantly evolve to enable smart connectivity of all things, he said.

The two companies are also working on a 5G Capital Innovation Project as part of their broader efforts to make Beijing a global benchmark for 5G applications.

China Unicom Beijing and Huawei have unveiled a 5G indoor ubiquitous gigabit network at the National Stadium, providing the infrastructure needed to scale smart applications such as AR services in large stadiums. Nicknamed „Bird’s Nest,“ the National Stadium is a 91,000-seat, 258,000-square-meter venue in Beijing. Large open spaces with a high density of mobile users like this represent a typical heavy-load scenario of mobile networks, Huawei said.

The large simultaneous sharing of images and videos, as well as video calls over 5G networks during large events, create huge capacity needs. At the same time, increasingly popular AR technology enables users to enjoy more diverse content and services via their cell phones and smart glasses while interacting with their surroundings to enhance immersion, further increasing network experience requirements, Huawei said, adding that the two companies are working together to solve such problems.

The deepened cooperation came after China Unicom reported a 21.2 percent year-on-year increase in net profit in the first quarter. The company’s 5G users increased by 21.02 million in the first quarter to a total of 91.85 million.

Wang Zhiqin, deputy head of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, a state-run think tank, said, „China is likely to make several breakthroughs in 5G technology development, network construction and applications in the next five years.“