China will be at front of global pack for launch of 5G networks by 2020, says telecoms giant ZTE
Company plans to debut its ‘pre-5G’ technology in China next year
Chinese technology enterprises will be among the first in the world to launch 5G networks by 2020, ZTE Corp. said on Monday.
The Chinese telecoms giant plans to commercialise its “pre-5G” technology in mainland China next year.
“When 4G networks were introduced to the market, China still saw about a three-or- four- year lag behind Western countries,” Alex Wang, vice president of ZTE’s CTO Group, said at the South China Morning Post’s China Conference in Hong Kong.
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“But when it comes to the 5G era, the Chinese government has already announced it will run 5G [services] by 2020 [making it] as fast as developed countries like Japan, the United States and South Korea.”
Wang said China’s internet and mobile phone users will be able to enjoy speeds between 10 and 100 times faster than now within five years, as the government keeps pushing innovation and technological development.
ZTE will spend around US$220 million globally on 5G and other mobile communication technologies between 2015 and 2018, the company said.
As the world’s fastest-growing provider of 4G networks solutions, ZTE has touted its “pre-5G” technology, an intermediate step between 4G and 5G, as applying some advanced technology to existing 4G networks.