Huawei ramps up the 5G chest beating

Huawei’s 2018 Mobile Broadband Forum has been all about bigging up 5G and the host hasn’t been shy about banging its own drum.

Director of the carrier business group Ryan Ding used his keynote to announce that Huawei has already signed 22 commercial contracts for 5G. “Every new generation of network comes with new challenges, and this applies to 5G commercial deployment, too,” said Ding. “We take complexity and deliver simplicity. That means we will provide innovative solutions to address challenges in 5G commercialization. Our close collaboration with carriers will help them find the easy way to 5G.”

It looks like the rest of Ding’s keynote was more of the same sort of thing so we’ll spare you the details. His boss Ken Hu had previously announced at the event that Huawei has already shipped 10,000 5G base stations. “From all angles, 5G is ready,” he said. “It’s ready to use, it’s affordable, and most importantly, demand is real. Of course, there are still some barriers to 5G deployment.”

To be fair to Huawei it does seem to have a fair bit to crow about on the 5G front. In a panel at the same event, attended by Light Reading, BT’s Chief Architect Neil McRae declared that Huawei is the only true 5G supplier right now. To some extent those remarks seem designed to motivate Huawei’s competitors to raise their game, but it does serve as a reminder that, in spite of its geopolitical challenges, Huawei is still the team to beat in telecoms.