Huawei Chairman Xu Zhijun took to the stage at this year’s Mobile World Congress Shanghai 2018 to both reveal the company’s plans for 5G and some of the benefits it will deliver. To begin with, the chairman says its HiSilicon subsidiary plans to release a 5G-compatible Kirin SoC at some point in 2019. However, Huawei won’t be taking it easy in the meantime. Instead, it will reveal a full suite of commercial 5G network solutions built on a Non-Standalone (NSA) network beginning on September 30 of this year. That means the network will be built on a 4G backbone rather than on its own infrastructure. Japan’s launch of a 5G commercial system on a separate network will then precede the rollout of now fewer than five 5G-ready smartphones in June of 2019. Of course, the executive didn’t offer any details about those devices and they are still likely in early phases of development with consideration for the time frames involved.
With that said, Xu Zhijun did highlight key points about 5G and the differences between next and current-generation networking which he believes will be defining factors. Not only is the technology going to allow for much faster connections over a wider bandwidth – allowing a much larger number of devices to be connected across an array of categories ranging from smartphones to televisions and smart cars. It will also reduce the overall latency experienced by devices on the mobile networks and allow integration of a “stronger encryption algorithm.” Coupled with new authentication methods and privacy protections, Huawei expects 5G to be as revolutionary in terms of security as it is in performance.
Moving on from that point, the company’s chairman appeared to address concerns over whether or not it would maintain industry-wide cooperation as China’s primary contributor to 5G standards and patent-holder. Referring to a statement released by the leading smartphone manufacturer and networking equipment provider back in May, Xu Zhijun, reiterated Huawei’s promise to abide by principles of fairness. As such, it will be cooperating with 5G partners and share innovative technologies in order to build out a “healthy” ecosystem for 5G. The statements come amidst concerns about the company’s ties to the Chinese government, which have spawned several controversies over the past few months.