Huawei trade ban to test China’s 5G roll-out as Beijing set to issue commercial licences
- The grant of licences will come after South Korea, the US, Australia and the UK launched initial commercial 5G services
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said it will issue licences for commercial 5G mobile services “in the near future”, as the country attempts to move ahead in the global race to roll out ultra-fast, next-generation telecommunications networks that will help power the industrial internet, autonomous driving and smart cities.
But a US blacklisting of Huawei Technologies, the global leader in 5G telecoms network equipment, raises concerns about the ability of China to stick to its plan for a speedy roll-out.
“Even if [commercial] 5G licences are issued in China, I don’t see how the country’s telecoms network operators could build out in a big scale without Huawei,” Jefferies equity analyst Edison Lee said.
The MIIT did not provide a clear timeline for issuing the commercial 5G licences to the country’s three wireless network operators – China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom – which have combined 4G subscribers of more than 1.2 billion as of April 30.