Huawei acting CEO discusses 5G and its impact

The acting CEO of Chinese telecommunication giant Huawei has called on the telecom sectors to open its doors and proactively embrace and dialogue with other industries to define 5G standards.

In an interview with the Mobile World Daily, which is produced by the organizer of the Mobile World Congress, Huawei acting CEO Ken Hu said although 60 percent of devices are still using 2G technology, the time was right to work on 5G.

Because the move towards the "Internet of Things(IoT) and the Industrial Internet means new technologies are reshaping industries and society," something which "poses huge challenges for the mobile communications technologies," he said.

With the arrival of 5G, there will be enormous possibilities for visual communication, multimedia interaction, as well as "remote education and telemedicine platforms," he said.

Hu believes that 5G standards unfortunately "still falls short of expectations". With too many different standards, there is currently "no clear standard," he said.

Huawei is now one of the main players working on the development of 5G technology. At the ongoing 2015 Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona, Huawei has announced plans to invest at least 600 million U.S. dollars in research and development for 5G technology over the next three years.

Hu highlighted that 5G will be able to support the 100 billion connections required by the IoT.

"Everything will be connected: our toothbrushes, our sneakers, glasses, watches...as well as forklifts and robotic arms used in factories," said Hu, who said 4G capabilities were not enough for this.

He added 5G will also provide the reaction speed needed in a self-driving car and 5G will also provide the bandwidth for "holographic technology and other modes of communication which are emerging."

According to Hu, 5G will provide a "100 fold increase in connections" while having a "ultra-low latency of one millisecond," allowing for lightning fast reaction times, while the "peak data transfer rate will be 100 times faster than what is currently available."

Hu said 5G networks will enable "tens of thousands of 5G application scenarios, such as IoV (Internet of vehicles), IoT and mobile broadband networks."

"Our ability to imagine the future is still quite limited," he said, "but we know it will be a super-connected and super-intelligent world. The doors of innovation have just begun to open and we are at the beginning of the beginning," he said.