SHANGHAI, CHINA – Chinese vendor Huawei has already signed a total of 50 contracts in the 5G field and has shipped over 150,000 base stations globally, the company’s deputy chairman Ken Hu said in a keynote presentation at Mobile World Congress 2019 Shanghai.
The executive said that the vendor was one of the first companies to start developing 5G standards.
“We started 5G research as early as 2009. That’s back when 4G was just starting to see commercial deployment. We have also invested heavily, and continue to do so. Over the past ten years, we have invested $4 billion in 5G,” Hu said.
Huawei currently has a portfolio of more than 2,570 patents in the 5G field, which represents nearly 20% of the global total, Hu said. The executive highlighted that these patents cover infrastructure and terminals as well as chipsets.
Hu also said that there are lower deployment costs of 5G base stations compared to 4G LTE.
“Our 5G base stations outperform our 4G base stations by a factor of 20. And they are lighter and smaller on top of that. This significantly reduces deployment costs for our customers. Now, all you need is two people, and they can install a Huawei 5G base station in only 2 hours. That’s half the time it takes for 4G,” he said.
Hu also said that the company is well-prepared to collaborate with Chinese carriers for the development of 5G network infrastructure in the country.
“Now that China has issued its 5G licenses, 2019 is officially the year of 5G. As a Chinese company, and as a leader in 5G, we are super excited and eager to do our part,” he said. “This marks the beginning of 5G commercialization in the world’s largest mobile communications market. I believe China will help set a great example for the rest of the world, and provide useful insight for deployment in other regions,” Hu added.
Regarding the import restriction imposed in May by the U.S government which bans US firms to export components and software to the Chinese vendor, Hu only thanked the press for “all the attention” in recent months due to the conflict.
A report by the Wall Street Journal revealed that U.S. firms including Qualcomm, Intel and Micron had found ways to avoid the U.S. government’s export ban on Huawei and continue some business with the vendor.
According to the report, these companies have resumed shipments of components to Huawei without violating regulations imposed by the Trump administration.
Citing sources with knowledge of the matter, the report said that Micron restarted some shipments on Tuesday, while Qualcomm is now shipping certain radio frequency components and Intel resumed shipments of certain products.
The report noted that the rules do not ban shipments of components and equipments manufactured in third countries as long as they are not made with 25% of U.S.-originated material.
Huawei acquired $70 billion worth of components and parts last year from 13,000 suppliers. Of that, about $11 billion was spent on products from dozens of U.S. businesses, including computer chips from Qualcomm and Broadcom, as well as Microsoft software and Google’s Android, according to previous reports.
