Huawei predicts that the first 5G networks will be ready for commercial deployment starting in 2020 and will deliver peak data rates of over 10Gbps, 100 times faster than today s 4G networks. Huawei has pledged to invest a minimum of US$600 million in research and innovation for 5G technologies by 2018. The investment will cover a range of key enabling technologies, including the research of air-interface technology.
Eric Xu, rotating CEO of Huawei, said: "Innovation is a continuous journey. While we continue to evolve our existing 4G network capabilities, we plan to invest a minimum of US$600 million over the next five years on research and innovation for 5G mobile network technologies to ensure that we are meeting the consumers demands for increasingly faster and better connections. This number does not include investment to productize 5G technologies."
Huawei says that it began investing in 5G in 2009. At the Mobile World Congress in 2011 and 2012, the company demonstrated industry-leading 5G prototype base stations with the capacity up to 50 Gbps. To date, Huawei has participated in the EU s 5G research projects, worked on the establishment of the 5G Innovation Center (5GIC) in the United Kingdom, and participated in joint research programs with over 20 universities around the world.
"There are several issues that must be resolved before 5G can become a reality," said Mr Xu. "These include the availability of spectrum and technological challenges, such as how to engineer network architectures capable of handling increasingly higher data volumes and transmission speeds necessary to accommodate more users on the network.”