Global mobile industry leaders pledge to support 5G mmWave development

5G millimeter wave is expanding in many countries and regions including China, Europe, India, Japan, South Korea, North America and Southeast Asia

Global 5G mmWave deployments deliver extreme performance and capacity, enabling operators and device manufacturers to meet growing data demands and open up new service opportunities 

2021年6月28日，西班牙巴塞罗那——众多移动通信企业今日宣布在全球范围内共同支持5G毫米波技术的部署——其中包括来自中国、欧洲、印度、日本、韩国、北美、东南亚等越来越多的国家及地区的重要企业。行业领军企业致力于在当前发展势头的基础之上，持续投入5G毫米波，以支持其应对用户数据需求的显著增长，并扩大移动生态系统在支持众多行业经济发展方面发挥的重要作用。

Driving the 5G mmWave momentum today are global mobile industry leaders including Airtel, AT&T, CasaSystems, China Unicom, Chunghwa Telecom, Deutsche Telekom, ETRI, Elisa, Ericsson, Fastweb, Fibocom, KX-Link, HMD Global, Honor, Infomark, Innowireless, KDDI, Kyocera, Mega, Motorola, NBN, Nokia, NTT DOCOMO, OPPO, Optus, Orange, Partron, Quectel, Rakuten Mobile, Samsung Electronics, Singtel, SoftBank, Sunsea, TCL Communication, Telia Finland, Telstra, TIM, True Corporation, UScellular, vivo, Vodafone, Xiaomi and ZTE, who are working with Qualcomm Technologies to drive the adoption of 5G mmWave networks and devices.

“Global 5G mmWave deployment is unstoppable,” said Amon, president and CEO-elect of Qualcomm Incorporated. “Millimeter wave is critical to realizing the full potential of 5G, and embracing 5G mmWave technology will bring competitive advantages to companies. 5G mmWave has won the support of many companies in the ecosystem, further demonstrating its global scale and maturity. We are proud of Qualcomm’s industry-leading position in the research and development, standardization and commercialization of 5G mmWave. We are honored to work with key leaders in the mobile industry to accelerate the deployment of 5G mmWave around the world.”

5G millimeter wave can utilize the abundant spectrum resources in the frequency band above 24GHz to effectively supplement the deployment of Sub-6GHz and unleash the full potential of 5G. 5G millimeter wave technology supports leading operators to provide ultra-large capacity based on cellular networks and supports multi-gigabit low-latency wireless connections. The above features can help mobile operators meet users' daily expectations for instant response and fast connections, while opening up new 5G opportunities, such as fixed wireless, enterprise applications (offices, campuses), vertical industry applications and services (such as ultra-high-definition video security), and precise remote guidance and control for diverse application scenarios (such as telemedicine, smart factories and smart docks).

Several leading mobile industry companies shared the following views on 5G mmWave:

Airtel

“Millimeter wave spectrum is emerging as an important part of the 5G ecosystem, bringing unlimited potential for use cases such as fixed wireless access (FWA), helping economies like India to bridge the broadband divide between urban and suburban areas,” said Randeep Sekhon, chief technology officer, Bharti Airtel. “The Indian government has allocated 28 GHz millimeter wave spectrum to Airtel for 5G trials, and we are already preparing for the use cases. We are very excited to see the strong momentum in millimeter wave deployments around the world, and look forward to working with stakeholders such as Qualcomm Technologies to accelerate the development of millimeter wave technology.”

AT&T 

“AT&T is leveraging 5G mmWave to deliver ultra-fast speeds and enhanced connectivity to high-volume locations like stadiums, arenas, airports, entertainment venues and campuses,” said Jeff Howard, vice president of AT&T Mobile Devices Portfolio. “Today, we offer AT&T 5G+, our 5G mmWave service, in parts of 38 cities and more than 20 venues across the U.S. By the end of 2021, AT&T expects to offer 5G mmWave service in parts of more than 40 cities and more than 40 venues across the U.S.”

Casa Systems 

“As a disruptive new technology, 5G mmWave brings transformative opportunities for expanding network services and improving user experience far beyond traditional wireless networks,” said Steve Collins, senior vice president of access terminals at Casa Systems. “5G mmWave technology is mature, and its performance and deployment are ready to support large-scale commercial use. Casa Systems is proud to work with Qualcomm Technologies to bring truly disruptive broadband connectivity to service providers around the world.”

China Unicom

China Unicom has been committed to promoting the maturity of 5G technology and vigorously cultivating the 5G ecosystem. During MWC Shanghai 2021, China Unicom joined hands with Qualcomm Technologies, ZTE, GSMA and dozens of leading companies to jointly demonstrate the ultimate performance and rich applications enabled by 5G millimeter wave. In May of this year, it successfully completed the world's first 5G millimeter wave 8K video backhaul service demonstration based on a large uplink frame structure in a laboratory environment with the IMT-2020 (5G) Promotion Group, ZTE, Qualcomm Technologies and TVU Networks, verifying the excellent uplink capability of 5G millimeter wave, which is of great significance for meeting the uplink large bandwidth requirements of many 5G industry applications in the future. As an important part of 5G, millimeter wave has the technical advantages of high bandwidth, high capacity and low latency, which can effectively meet the business needs of vertical industries, including providing network service guarantees for large-scale events and activities, as well as wide applications in scenarios such as smart factories, smart parks and smart docks. China Unicom is the only official communications service partner of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. It is deploying 5G facilities in and around the Olympic venues, and will use a series of advanced 5G technologies to provide high-level 5G business services, further promote the Olympic concept of higher, faster and stronger, and present a wonderful, extraordinary and outstanding technological Olympic event to the world.

Chunghwa Telecom

Dr. Lin Rongci, executive vice president and chief technology officer of Chunghwa Telecom, said: "In December 2020, we worked with Qualcomm Technologies to launch the world's first 5G mmWave enterprise private network-enabled smart factory at ASE Group in Taiwan. We expect that the large bandwidth and low latency characteristics of 5G mmWave will support the development of diversified innovative applications in specific vertical fields."

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI)

“Qualcomm Technologies and ETRI have had a strategic collaboration since the CDMA era, and our collaboration has driven the development of 5G mmWave small cells,” said Seung Chan Bang, senior vice president of the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI). “With 5G mmWave small cell technology, we can provide an enhanced wireless experience to our customers and the industry, helping to realize the true value of 5G.”

Elisa 

Jarno Niemelä, Head of Mobile Access Technology at Elisa, said: "Elisa, together with technology partners, continues to create the right technology solutions for customers to meet the growing mobile broadband capacity needs of consumers and enterprise customers and enable a wide range of new 5G services. The world needs pioneers in the field of 5G mmWave, and thanks to Finland's excellent spectrum policy, its 26GHz spectrum auction was completed in 2020. This provides Elisa with the opportunity to test mmWave technology at 26GHz, making it possible to achieve ultra-fast OTA downlink rates of 8Gbps and prepare for the new era of 5G services."

Ericsson

Per Narvinger, head of product area networks at Ericsson, says: “There is growing interest in mmWave technology, which can deliver multi-gigabit speeds and extreme capacity to mobile broadband users. Our innovations, developed together with Qualcomm Technologies and a broad range of service providers around the world, will also enable fiber-like connectivity for fixed wireless access users. mmWave and 5G will enable innovative new use cases such as mixed reality, media, telemedicine and smart manufacturing. As a leader in mmWave, Ericsson is pleased to have broad ecosystem support for this critical technology.”

Fastweb

Marco Arioli, CTO of Fastweb, said: “At Fastweb, we firmly believe that 5G is the enabling technology for ultra-broadband connectivity and we are proud to be one of the first operators in Europe to deploy a commercial UltraFWA network based on 5G mmWave spectrum. We started deploying our 5G mmWave network a few months ago and plan to cover nearly 12 million homes in the next three years. 5G mmWave has proven to be a disruptive alternative to Fiber to the Home (FTTH) and other ultra-broadband (UBB) wireline technologies.”

Guanghetong

Ying Lingpeng, CEO of Fibocom, said: "As a key force in popularizing 5G mmWave and promoting the interconnection of everything in society, Fibocom is pleased to work with Qualcomm Technologies. Developed based on the Snapdragon X65 and X62 5G modem-RF systems, Fibocom's FM160W and FG160W modules promote the popularization and commercialization of 5G mmWave with excellent performance, providing high-speed wireless experience for industry customers and consumers, and enabling thousands of industries."

Gongjin Electronics

Hu Zumin, CEO of Shenzhen Gongjin Electronics Co., Ltd., said: "We are very pleased to fully cooperate with Qualcomm Technologies in the field of 5G. In addition to Sub-6GHz technology, Gongjin Electronics also invested in and launched a series of millimeter wave products early on. We are also very pleased that more and more operators around the world are investing in 5G millimeter waves. Gongjin Electronics is very optimistic about the future market prospects of millimeter waves. We will work together with Qualcomm Technologies to contribute to the development of the 5G industry."

HMD Global 

HMD Global先进理念与技术高级总监Rosario Casillo表示：“5G毫米波是助力实现5G全部潜能的关键赋能技术——能够提供前所未有的速度，同时应对智能手机不断增长的数据需求。5G毫米波为运营商带来显著优势，并将支持最高速的数千兆比特速率和低时延的连接。HMD Global将继续投资5G毫米波，因为这项变革性技术将带来当今无法实现的卓越性能和用户体验。”