PARTNER FEATURE: At the Huawei Global Analyst Summit (HAS) 2020, Mr. Ritchie Peng, Chief Marketing Officer of Huawei’s Wireless Network Product Line, joined with world’s leading analysts to discuss the new trends of wireless network development through online communication. Mr. Peng highlighted that “5G is gearing up to emerge as the foundation of the digital economy and create new value in the ICT industry.”

Wireless Connections Are Essential for the ICT Industry to Create New Value

Wireless connections are playing an increasingly important role in the digital economy. Wireless networks diversify social networking and entertainment, suggested by the 20% increase in the mobile voice and data traffic in the first quarter of 2020. Wireless networks bring internet access to households previously lacking digital connections, conformed by CPE sales going up by three to five times in the related countries. Wireless networks empower enterprises to provide remote working environments and schools to deliver students online classes. This is particularly important to ensure continued working and learning.

“Facing such an abrupt increase of mobile data traffic, wireless networks are experiencing tremendous challenges. This shows us the direction of developing wireless networks in the future,” Mr. Peng emphasized.

To fulfill the requirements of rapidly growing mobile traffic, all frequency bands are evolving to 5G to provide users with Gbps experience. “For mobile operators, TDD+FDD convergence will be their ultimate goal of developing 5G networks. C-Band, as well as 2.6 GHz bands, is a majority contributor to TDD intermediate bands used for NR deployment. The sub-3 GHz FDD band will be a supplement for TDD NR deployment to help deliver quick NR coverage,” Mr. Peng pointed out. In addition, Super Uplink bands will enable NR networks to address the issue of limited uplink coverage and capacity, and this satisfies the requirements of various industrial applications. A new IMT band of 6 GHz has been initiated in WRC-19. This band is expected to be a new mainstream for 5G, paving the way for future 5G development.

With the continued shutdown of 2G and 3G networks, spectrum occupied by these networks will be refarmed for 4G and 5G networks to improve spectral efficiency. Fewer running technologies are also favorable in reducing network O&M costs. Importantly, this means that LTE must take over 2G and 3G networks to provide voice and Internet of Things (IoT) services.

To date, VoLTE has been commercially deployed by over 200 operators worldwide. The price of VoLTE-capable 4G feature phones has been continuously decreasing and is now approximately USD 20. VoLTE has been regarded as a standard configuration for voice services in the 5G era. After years of development, NB-IoT is already comparable to 2G in terms of service performance and has gained more than 100 million connections. The price of NB-IoT modules is decreasing to be the level of their 2G counterparts. This proves that it is already mature in terms of both technology and ecosystem for NB-IoT to replace 2G IoT.

Industrial Applications Are New Realm for the ICT Industry to Create New Value

While 4G changes life, 5G changes society. 5G, together with cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI), is emerging as new engines to push the digital economy forward. With concerted efforts of global operators and industry partners, “5G is no longer just a concept. Based on 3GPP Release 15, 5G networks provide Gbps uplink and downlink rates to empower industrial applications,” Mr. Peng explained.

By the first quarter of 2020, 5G smart healthcare applications, including teleconsultation, remote diagnosis, and intelligent medical assistance, have been put into commercial use. This provides strong support for medical institutions and facilitates effective collaboration of medical resources across localities. “5G supports quick deployment and provides high performance, freeing industry partners from focusing on connections while innovating industrial applications,” Mr. Peng continued.

5G is helping education institutions to modernize education operations with intelligent and digital approaches. 5G networks provide robust support for high-definition video, VR, AR, and MR services, enabling teaching quality to be significantly improved. 5G networks facilitate data collection within campuses, powering comprehensive analysis established on AI and big data technologies to benefit smart management.

5G has also reaped initial success in shopping malls, hotels, and scenic spots, with indoor navigation, robot assistance, smart retails, and VR immersive travel among many other industrial services becoming increasingly mature. 5G facilitates in-depth integration with industrial Internet and business operation technologies to accelerate the maturity of AI-based quality check, wireless programmable logic controllers (PLCs), and automated guided vehicle (AGV) logistics. This will be essential for the entire smart manufacturing industry to achieve complete transformation and seize new opportunities.

“5G has opened up a new space for industrial development, bringing tremendous changes to industries and evolving into a new engine to drive the digital economy in the new era,” Mr. Peng concluded.