Chinese telecom equipment manufacturer Huawei has signed 22 commercial contracts for 5G and is working with more than 50 carriers on 5G commercial tests, Ryan Ding, executive director and president of carrier business group, announced during his speech at the Global Mobile Broadband Forum (MBBF) in London.
Through heavy investment and continuous innovation, Ding said the company is committed to helping carriers deploy 5G networks and driving the development of the 5G industry. “Every new generation of network comes with new challenges, and this applies to 5G commercial deployment, too,” Ding added that the company is closely collaborating with carriers to address those challenges.
According to the company’s press release, the device industry is a major driver of 5G technology development. After commercial roll-out of 5G networks, which is expected to happen next year, major smartphone makers will start offering 5G phones—this, of course, includes Huawei’s foldable phone announced in October.
The first wave of 5G commercial use is expected to cover one-third of the global population, according to GSMA. The scale of commercialization is expected to exceed that of 3G and 4G.
Huawei recently announced that it has shipped more than 10,000 5G base stations globally and that millions of base stations are expected to be built across the world by 2025.
Huawei is already working with governments and wireless operators in markets including India, New Zealand, and the UK.
Despite being an active participant in 5G markets outside of China, the company is facing significant pushback in some markets. In August, Australia announced that it would ban Huawei from providing 5G technology for its wireless networks over “national security” concerns. The US also plans to take similar steps against Huawei and ZTE, another major Chinese telecom equipment provider.