LIVE FROM MOBILE 360 EURASIA, MOSCOW: Huawei deputy chairman Ken Hu (pictured) urged authorities to help operators slash the cost of site acquisition to ease the deployment of 5G infrastructure.

During his keynote presentation Hu said although the Eurasia region was making strong progress towards 5G, barriers including a shortage of available spectrum and high costs of acquiring sites for infrastructure remained.

“We have some specific challenges to speed up 5G deployment. We hope governments can provide more spectrum resource,” he added, noting a minimum of 100MHz would be needed for each operator, which would need to be in appropriate bands.

Hu estimated the cost of site acquisition, rent and construction accounted for 60 per cent to 80 per cent of total network deployment costs in the region, adding authorities needed to open access to a greater number of locations.

Industry, he said, should concentrate on making the most of existing sites and continue “building the ecosystem” for 5G.

He explained Huawei was doing its bit to help drive 5G in the region, pledging to provide facilities to train 10,000 local experts in related technologies at a cost of RUB50 million ($770,273).

Hu went on to illustrate the success of 5G technology in markets including South Korea and highlight the vast range of future applications based on the technology, with a specific focus on healthcare.

Commonly cited use cases were “just the beginning” Hu said, explaining the vendor has an “ambition to transfer 5G to all vertical industries”.