Huawei announces release dates for its commercial 5G networks

Global telecommunications technology company Huawei announced its timetable for the roll out of 5G technology at the 2018 Mobile World Congress on Wednesday.

Xu Zhijun, vice-president of Huawei, at the 2018 Mobile World Congress in Shanghai on Wednesday, June 27, 2018 [Photo: ifeng.com]

Xu Zhijun, Huawei's vice-president, said that the company's commercial non-standalone 5G networks will be available from October. And its standalone 5G networks will be available from April next year. Non-standalone 5G technology means that phones have a 5G connection for data, but relies on 4G for other network services. Standalone 5G means that ll data from the phone to the mobile network runs on a 5G network.

China Telecom announced this month that it will start building its 5G network based on the standalone 5G technology. Commercial 5G services are expected to become available in 2020.

At the congress in Shanghai, Xu Zhijun said that he hopes commercial 5G technology can make mobile video as good as mobile voice is for users today.