With all the latest buzz about 5G and collaborations coming up on various ends, this whole issue is certainly picking up speed and becoming a very prominent subject. So far there has mainly been news about European and US institutions joining forces to make 5G a global success, but now the 5G development is seemingly gaining momentum in Asia as well, with another two of the biggest manufacturers in Asia signing a so called “Memorandum of Understanding” to cooperate on its standardisation.
After another declaration of cooperation with Samsung just recently, LG U+ decided to partner up with Huawei as well, for joint development and understanding of the next mobile standard. LG U+ is the network-centric part of LG, formerly known as LG Telecom, and is said to be one of the most advanced technology providers in Asia, having launched an LTE-Advanced service in mid 2013 already. To underline the importance of the 5G development, the signing of that Memorandum was not simply completed as an administrative task, but the two partners decided to hold a signing ceremony at Huawei’s R&D center in Shanghai, China.
As large companies hardly ever just sign something without bigger goals, the two have not just signed this paper for fun either, but they distinctively declare global leadership in 5G as their common objective. Cooperation will span the entire field of networks, from development of technology over equipment to entire network solutions that will supposedly take the world into the next era of mobile communication. Similar to other declarations of cooperation, Huawei and LG U+ are said to be working on new network architectures and pertaining elements to improve capacity and enhance speeds.
It remains to be seen if this new joint-venture will make contact with already existing committees to really ensure a global standard, and if their approach is as radical as the industry declared it had to be: do a complete redesign, from scratch, to be able to host the billions of devices the Internet of things will throw at it, with raised demands in terms of availability and latency.