South Korea’s consumer electronics giant Samsung, best known for its smartphones, has set its sights on becoming a top-three player in the 5G infrastructure market, forecasting network equipment sales to more than triple to KRW10 trillion ($8.6 billion) in 2022.

The world’s largest smartphone maker aims to pick up market share by moving quickly and targeting the lucrative US market, which is moving ahead on 5G and where Asian rivals Huawei and ZTE have a de facto ban on selling networking gear due to security concerns by the government.

Kim Young-ky, Samsung’s network business chief, told Reuters: “We plan to move quickly and want to be at least among the top three with 5G. It’s important to get in early.”

Its network business had just KRW3 trillion in revenue last year compared with more than KRW100 trillion for its device business, Reuters reported. The vendor in the past has supported CDMA and WiMAX technologies, which ended up being phased out.

The global mobile network equipment market is dominated by Ericsson, Huawei and Nokia, with Samsung number five in the 4G market in Q1, according to research firm IHS.

The move to 5G is quickly gaining momentum, with leading mobile operators in Asia Pacific and North America racing to announce initiatives and trials with vendors as well as ambitious launch targets. But the first official release of a 5G standard isn’t expected until mid-2018, with phase two following by the end of 2019 – so the consensus is that 5G launches won’t start until 2020. Widespread deployments of 5G aren’t expected to come until 2022 or later.

US target
In the US Samsung is partnering with Verizon, via the recently set up 5G Open Trial Specification Alliance. Other operator members are NTT Docomo, SK Telecom (SKT) and KT. Verizon announced plans last year to work with a number of vendors on outdoor 5G tests and trials over the summer. Its focus is on fixed wireless and aims to have an initial fixed wireless pilot starting in 2017.

US operators have the full backing of the government, with Tom Wheeler, head of the FCC, announcing a proposal this week that will open up “vast amounts” of suitable spectrum, with the intention of giving the US a headstart in creating applications for 5G.

Samsung’s first 5G initiatives will be to sell base stations and home receivers for fixed wireless broadband access, Reuters said.

Samsung can also look to its home market, where operators have announced plans to launch some form of 5G technology for the Winter Olympics in February 2018.

SKT said in March it tested its 5G system at 28GHz in the outdoor environment and has been working on millimetre wave 5G systems since last year with Samsung. The operator also opened up a 5G Global Innovation Centre earlier in the year with a 5G test-bed.