Huawei Executive Talks About the Small Cell Market, New Products and Huawei’s Contribution in the US

RCR Wireless News conducted a five question interview with George Reed, SVP, Solutions and Marketing at Huawei Technologies USA in preparation for the company’s appearance at both CTIA’s Super Mobility Week and CCA’s Annual Convention in Las Vegas. During the interview, George also provided an introduction of the new products from Huawei, as well as their continuing investments in other leading-edge technologies and their contributions to local communities.

RCR: This is Jeff Mucci from RCR Wireless News and I am speaking today with George Reed, Senior Vice President, Solutions and Marketing for Huawei Technologies USA.  As we get started, George, please share with us what your specific responsibilities are with Huawei.

George: Hello, Jeff.  Thank you for the opportunity to share some general information about Huawei Technologies USA with RCR Insights and some specific information about what we are doing during CCA and Super Mobility Week in Las Vegas. Regarding my responsibilities at Huawei, I lead strategy, business development, product line management, solutions development and marketing.

RCR: That’s great, thank you, George. We are all looking forward to Super Mobility Week. I understand Huawei is exhibiting at CTIA as well as CCA. Please share with us the new products you are showing at your booth.

George: Huawei is exhibiting at Booth #400 at the CCA event in the Cosmopolitan Hotel. We are introducing several new products as well as exhibiting some of our other industry-leading solutions. Some of our key new exhibits include:

• Enhanced Wireless Local Loop Solution — this is a very cost-effective, EPC-Free, fixed wireless, LTE Solution. One of the key advantages of this solution is that it comes with integrated LTE core network functionality such as authentication and certification which provides the network operator significant savings as they do not need to purchase an EPC. The solution operates at 2.5 and 3.65 GHz and supports LTE advanced capabilities.
• Another new solution exhibited is our Lampsite In-Building Cloud RAN solution.  The Lampsite solution is the market-leading solution for simultaneous support of 3G/4G and Wi-Fi radio technologies. It has been deployed in over 25 locations globally and it has been shown to significantly improve the user experience.
• We are also displaying some of our new microwave solutions. Our RTN 380 is a 2nd generation E-band microwave product based on a carrier-grade design, and offers ultra-high capacity, best-in-class features and superior performance, including up to 2.5 Gbps full-duplex throughput on a single link.
• A second microwave product that is perfect for small cell backhaul opportunities is the RTN360 Huawei’s 60 GHz microwave product. It is designed to support street-level environments, quick installation and zero-touch configuration.
• We are also displaying some of our market-leading antenna products. Huawei has a portfolio of over 100 antennas offering a wide variety of frequencies and capabilities. Integrated RET, multi-beam support, multiple TX/RX ports and slim design packages are a few of the features which have helped position Huawei as the No. 2 ranked antenna supplier in the world.
• From the enterprise side, Huawei has many products and solutions for enterprise customers. At our exhibit at the CCA event, Huawei will be displaying the 5700-series gigabit enterprise switches, the S5700-EI. The 5700–series switches are next-generation, energy-saving switches developed by Huawei to meet the demand for high-bandwidth access and Ethernet multi-service aggregation. The S5700-EI is very easy to install and maintain and uses advanced reliability, security and energy conservation technologies to help enterprise customers build a next-generation IT network.
• On the consumer devices front, we will be displaying our market-leading 4G LTE Ascend Mate2. The Mate 2 offers a powerful quad-core 1.6 GHz processor and a long-lasting 3900 mAh lithium polymer battery. The device comes unlocked and is available exclusively through the company’s new e-commerce website, GetHuawei.com, or on Amazon.com.

RCR: Wow, that sounds like an excellent and exciting lineup of product and solutions. What else is Huawei doing during Super Mobility Week?

George: We have a number of activities scheduled during Super Mobility Week. In addition to our booth, we are serving as a Pinnacle Sponsor of CCA and we are a CTIA sponsor as well.

• On Tuesday, September 9, Huawei’s Corporate SVP, Charles Ding, will present one of the keynote addresses, “Extending Competitive Broadband to All.” Mr. Ding will discuss current trends and challenges in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry, and Huawei’s strategy toward capitalizing on those trends in order to support carrier customers and partners in their quest to successfully deliver ubiquitous and affordable broadband and related services to virtually every customer.
• In addition to displaying the 5700-Series gigabit switch at the CCA booth, the Huawei Enterprise team will share a booth with SAP at CTIA (booth #4414). Huawei’s FusionCube, a converged infrastructure platform supporting servers, storage, switches, virtualization and cloud management will be showcased for SAP HANA .
• The Huawei Devices team also has their own meeting room in the Sands Convention Center where they will discuss new devices privately with their customers.

RCR:  Looks like the Huawei team will be very busy. George, you mentioned your LampSite In-Building Cloud RAN solution. Can you comment on Huawei’s view of the in-building market as well as small cells, in general? 

George:  Excellent question, Jeff. The small cell market has proven to be an excellent opportunity to increase the user experience with consumers in general and with Huawei customers. Huawei believes that as network densification increases the demand for small cells, both indoor and outdoor, will continue to grow.

Huawei’s extensive small cell portfolio provides multiple tools to provide optimal deployments including picocells, microcells with integrated microwave and antennas, indoor/outdoor products, as well as DAS and Huawei’s industry-leading Lampsite Cloud RAN for in-building deployments. Huawei’s Lampsite product has been generally available for more than a year with over 25 global deployments already. One of these LampSite deployments is the world’s largest in-building deployment at the Beijing airport. The Beijing Airport supported 84 million passengers in 2013 and Huawei deployed over 2,200 LampSite units there. Another successful LampSite project was at a medium-sized venue, the prestigious Evian Royal Palace in France.

For outdoor deployments, Huawei has had several successes increasing capacity and providing seamless coverage for such operators like Vodaphone and Telus. In these deployments, Huawei’s Atom Cell solution was used in a HetNet microcell/macrocell overlay configuration. For Vodafone, the deployment resulted in a 13 dB improvement in coverage and approximately 50% improvement in data traffic capacity.

The increased demand for data will continue to drive network densification and Huawei will be there to bring our global experience and solution expertise.

RCR:  Small cells, HetNets and in-building solutions represent good opportunities for vendors globally.  Speaking of global activities, please comment on Huawei’s overall business and highlight some areas of innovation where Huawei is contributing.

George: From a financial results perspective, Huawei’s business is growing! Globally, Huawei’s revenues in 2013 were nearly $40 billion, an 8.5% increase year-over-year. Already in the first half of 2014, sales revenue has increased 19% year-over-year to put the revenue at $22 billion. On a global basis, Huawei has added many new customers.  In the U.S. alone, we have increased new customers by more than 80% in the first half of 2014 vs. the 2013 total. To meet customers’ needs and to drive the business volume discussed, Huawei offers an extensive global portfolio of products and services across wireline, wireless, MSO, enterprise and device market segments. This portfolio includes:

• Optical networking solutions
• Packet Switches
• Power systems
• Microwave products
• Radio Access Network solutions
• Ethernet switches
• FTTx Solutions
• IP solutions
• Data center solutions
• Core network equipment
• A large portfolio of devices including Phablet Smartphones like the Ascend Mate2
• Full complement of professional and managed services.

Regarding innovation activities, Huawei is investing heavily.  The company has 70,000 employees in R&D, and R&D expenditures in 2013 were $5.1 billion. As you can imagine, Huawei has significant focus on 5G radio technologies, next generation optical networking and access technologies. In addition, Huawei is investing and is engaging, on a global basis, with operators in ICT Transformation. ICT Transformation includes “cloudification” of the IT infrastructure as well as the utilization of software-defined networks and network function virtualization in the communications environment. Huawei’s approach and platform for ICT Transformation is called SoftCOM and it includes everything from high-capacity servers, storage and switches to Hypervisors to vCPE and more.

Huawei will continue its investments in other leading-edge technologies and devices to deliver cost-effective, efficient solutions for our customers.

RCR: Great results and happy to see Huawei’s significant investment in R&D. On a different note, what does Huawei do from a corporate social responsibility perspective to help those in need?

George: Huawei has a tremendous corporate social responsibility program. Each local unit, such as the America’s Representative Office that I am part of, is responsible for creating and delivering CSR programs. For example, here in the United States, we donate money, goods and time — that is volunteer hours — in supporting numerous events and charities. Some of these charities, organizations and events include:

• The Texas FoodBank
• Angel Tree
• Education Foundation Grants for  Plano ISD
• Communities In Schools (backpack & $9,000 donation to Bowman Middle School, Plano ISD)
• The Breast Cancer Foundation
• The Dragon Boat Race
• Habitat For Humanity.

RCR:  Very nice.  Giving back to the Community is important for all. Thank you, George, for your informative discussion on Huawei’s business, products, solutions and services. Good luck during Super Mobility Week.

George:  Thank you, Jeff. Hope to see you in Las Vegas.

The full video of the complete interview can be found below: