Prepare for 5G, says Huawei Canada boss

The president of Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.'s Canadian unit is calling for policy-makers, businesses and academics in Canada to come together and help prepare the country for the coming of 5G networking technology. At a breakfast event hosted by the Ottawa Chamber of Commerce Thursday morning, Sean Yang was to call for the creation of a public policy group, comprised of various public- and private-sector players, to prepare Canada for this next stage in the evolution of communications technology. He made a similar pitch in a phone interview with The Wire Report Wednesday. "5G is coming, and we — Canada — need to be ready," Yang said. "And we want to develop our skills, our technologies." Among other things, it means training the next generation of engineers to be able to create and work with equipment and applications for 5G networks, he said. Yang said Canada is falling behind areas such as the European Union, Japan, South Korea and China, which have already formed organizations to plan for the coming of 5G technology. Increasing the amount of wireless spectrum available, and making it more affordable, is key to creating the right environment for the development of 5G, Yang said. However, he was reluctant to criticize spectrum policies of the Canadian government, which has held three spectrum auctions since early 2014, the latest being one for 2500 MHz bandwidth this spring. Industry Canada has said the amount of spectrum available for mobile services had grown 60 per cent as a result of these auctions, and another spectrum sale has been planned for August. "The government did a great effort in trying to release more spectrum, and we are appreciative of this kind of thing," Yang said. He said there needs to be a global effort to make more spectrum available and create technology that can use different types of spectrum, and use it more efficiently. He said a single government can be limited in how much of a difference it can make by unilaterally releasing spectrum if the technological "ecosystem" is not there to support it. 5G networks are expected to become commercially available in about 2020 and feature data speeds that are 100 times faster than current LTE networks, Wen Tong, an Ottawa-based fellow with Huawei, told a conference in November 2013. It will create a foundation for advancing the Internet of Things, Yang said, "With 5G, the major target is not only to improve the communications between people, but also to improve the communications between things and things," Yang said. Automated cars and smart homes are just a few of the examples of where 5G communications will make an impact, he noted. China-based Huawei will be providing networking and cloud-storage technology that helps support 5G communications, Yang said. He added that there will be plenty of opportunities for other companies to participate. He said telecom service providers will have a central role to play in ensuring the quality of the new capabilities that are created as a result of 5G. — With reporting by Derek Abma at dabma@thewirereport.ca and editing by Shruti Shekar at sshekar@thewirereport.ca

Prepare for 5G, says Huawei Canada boss

Broadcast | May 28, 2015

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Prepare for 5G, says Huawei Canada boss

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