China’s telecom giant Huawei Technologies has revealed its plans for a 6G network. Corresponding devices should come onto the market around the year 2030, the rotating managing director Xu Zhiju recently announced, thus setting an example of the resilience of the company one year after the start of the embargo on microchips in the United States.
Xu spoke of the group’s 6G plans in the preface to a book published by the Huawei online community Xinsheng. Analysts admitted that the embargo imposed on Wednesday a year ago had a “painful” effect, but that the group was nevertheless well positioned to lead into the 6G future.
In his article, Xu writes that 6G technology is much more complex than 5G, which has to do with the fact that a large number of technologies have to be brought under one roof, including cloud computing, blockchain and big data. Huawei started investing in 6G technology back in 2017, when the commercial use of 5G had only just started.
“Huawei will define 5.5G in the next few years and at the same time intensify research into a 6G network. This challenges the imagination and creativity of the industry. It will be seen whether 6G can replace the 5G and 5.5G technologies, ”writes Xu.
Xu’s comments on 6G appeared a few days before the return of the day the microchip began to stop deliveries that the US government imposed on Huawei a year ago. On September 15, 2020, the US officially cut Huawei off from all suppliers whose products contained technology from the United States. Foreign media asked themselves at the time whether Huawei would be able to survive such an embargo, because the company was dependent on the import of microchips.
However, Huawei’s performance exceeded expectations this year. In the first half of 2021, sales were down 29 percent year-over-year, but net income rose 9.8 percentage points this year. Last year the increase was only 9.2 percentage points.
“The US sales ban harmed Huawei to a certain extent, but it did not shake the company’s foundations. Backed by the strong domestic market, Huawei has managed to retain its capital, human resources and research and development ability, which I believe will enable the company to advance next-generation technology and become a leader in the global telecom industry claim, “independent tech analyst Xiang Ligang told the Global Times on Sunday.
However, Xu and the experts mention the dark clouds of geopolitics that hovered over research and development of 6G technology as Huawei could remain excluded from the market even with 6G products.
In his foreword, Xu admits that 6G already has to act in a difficult environment in the research phase. He makes no explicit reference to the US embargo, but emphasizes that deepening cooperation is more important than ever before. Geopolitical shifts and the trend towards deglobalization created obstacles and challenges that hampered cooperation.
“Whether the industry can achieve satisfactory results in the development of 6G by 2030 will depend not least on whether the process for defining 6G is open enough, the market participants are pluralistic and communication among them is thorough enough,” said Xu.
According to Xu, Huawei is willing to discuss a common definition of 6G with companies and industries interested in 6G technology.
– .
