Chinese networking firm Huawei has revealed plans to lead the introduction of 5G in Europe, which could result in monumental boosts in mobile data speeds.
Huawei announced its goals at the 5G@Europe Summit in Munich, where it said it will invest significant amounts in research and development of 5G technology at its European Research Centre.
"5G will have a fundamental impact on the ICT industry and on our quality of life. Huawei is one of the driving forces in making 5G a reality," said Dr Wen Tong, Head of Wireless Research and Head of Communications Technologies Laboratories at Huawei 2012 LAB.
"We began investing in 5G in 2009, and recently announced plans to invest an additional US$600M for research and innovation into 5G technologies by 2018."
4G as a stepping stone
Huawei expects the first 5G networks to be ready by 2020, offering 10 times the capacity of existing mobile networks, with peak data speeds of over 10Gb/s.
However, Huawei stated that there must first be a successful global deployment of LTE 4G before 5G can be made a reality. Huawei is already helping with the European rollout of 4G in countries like Sweden and Norway.
The importance of 5G goes beyond just mobile computing, however. It is seen as a necessary advancement for growth of virtualised cloud computing and expansion of the Internet of Things. Huawei also sees 5G as an essential advancement for Europe to retain its competitiveness.
