Huawei says 5G will arrive in 2020

Huawei says 5G will arrive in 2020
5G is coming, but not quite yet.

In some countries 4G is yet to properly come into effect (we're looking at you, Britain), but that hasn't stopped Huawei developing its replacement.

Tony Wen, Huawei's lead in 5G technology development, spoke to the Wall Street Journal to explain that the fifth generation of mobile network will deliver a similar experience to that of a fibre broadband connection at home - presumably closer to the 100Mbps speeds we're all supposed to be looking to soon.

However before you get too excited by the thought of even faster browsing speeds on your mobile, Wen warned that the technology won't be ready for another seven years - which means we'll be kept waiting until 2020.

Not alone

It's not just Huawei who is working on 5G though, with the likes of Nokia, Ericsson and Alcatel all joining in as part of an EU funded project to develop the fifth-generation network.

Of course it's not just the networks and back-end systems which need to be developed for 5G, but the handsets themselves - which puts pressure on manufacturers and chip makers to keep up with the rest of the industry.

The CAT4 LTE network is already supported but currently the only handset which can take advantage of the increased speeds it offers is the Huawei Ascend P2 - so things are unlikely to develop all that quickly.

John McCann
Global Managing Editor

John joined TechRadar over a decade ago as Staff Writer for Phones, and over the years has built up a vast knowledge of the tech industry. He's interviewed CEOs from some of the world's biggest tech firms, visited their HQs and has appeared on live TV and radio, including Sky News, BBC News, BBC World News, Al Jazeera, LBC and BBC Radio 4. Originally specializing in phones, tablets and wearables, John is now TechRadar's resident automotive expert, reviewing the latest and greatest EVs and PHEVs on the market. John also looks after the day-to-day running of the site.