Huawei expects ‘double digit growth’ for carrier unit in 2019 as 5G kicks in after two years of flat sales
- Huawei says it has now signed 40 5G contracts, over half in Europe
Huawei, the world’s largest network equipment maker, is expecting growth of at least 10 per cent for its carrier business this year as operators and businesses alike prepare for commercialisation of 5G in 2020, after two consecutive years of flat sales.
The forecast for “double digit growth” comes after Huawei’s carrier business declined 1.3 per cent in 2018, according to its latest annual report, with growth of just 2.5 per cent in 2017 at the same business unit.
“For the industry, 5G will be the new driver for investment,” said Ken Hu, Huawei’s rotating chairman at the Huawei Analyst Summit in Shenzhen on Tuesday. “5G investments this year will not be hot topic-driven, but business-value driven, and these kinds of investments are more reliable and solid.”
Hu also said that the company had secured 40 contracts for 5G commercial networks around the world as of the end of March, up from 30 contracts that the company announced in January. A company presentation detailed that over half of these contracts come from Europe.
Fifth-generation wireless networks, which can be up to 100 times faster than 4G networks, are expected to revolutionise everything from the internet of things to autonomous driving and virtual reality, bringing billions of dollars in economic benefit to countries that can keep up with the technology. Huawei is currently the world’s largest telecommunications gear supplier and at the forefront of 5G innovation, with the most number of standard essential patents, according to German intellectual property analytics firm IPlytics.