[Kuala Lumpur, March 20, 2019] Huawei has called for release of spectrum for 5G to promote sustainable growth in the Asia Pacific’s mobile business at the 5th Asia-Pacific Spectrum Management Conference. The conference, hosted by Forum Global, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Asia-Pacific Telecommunity (APT) and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on March 12 to 14.

Huawei led the discussion of spectrum management, providing suggestions for promoting spectrum allocation and industry policies with ITU-R, APT, Asia-Pacific telecom regulators, and operators.

"In 2019, C-band/2.6GHz/2.3GHz is the global golden spectrum of 5G, which has either been released or is preparing to be released by leading countries and carriers worldwide,” said Xu Weizhong, Vice President of Huawei’s Wireless Product Line. “Meanwhile, others have started scale construction. We believe that continuous large bandwidth (80-100MHz/operator) is the foundation of 5G commercial success. Combined with 32T32R and even 64T64R-based Massive MIMO technology, it can reduce the cost per bit by 10 times, increase user experience by 10 times, and push MBB to new heights."

Xu Weizhong, Vice President of Huawei’s Wireless Product Line delivered keynote speech at the 5th Annual Asia-Pacific Spectrum Management Conference.

Based on case studies and innovative technologies from industry partners as well as the experience of spectrum distribution in Asia-Pacific countries, Huawei discussed key topics covering how 5G can drive MBB to a higher development stage. Also noted in the discussion were efforts to ensure the golden first spectrum C-band /2.6GHz/2.3GHz continues large-bandwidth distribution in the region, the evolution of 4G towards 5G full-service networks as well as the development of Fixed Wireless Access, Digital Indoor System, microwave, WRC-19, and 5G Millimeter wave.

Coordinating spectrum planning is the focus of 5G development. In countries where 5G spectrum has been distributed, 80-100MHz/ 5G spectrum resources have already been guaranteed for each operator. However, in some Southeast Asia and South Pacific countries, the C-band of 5G core spectrum is still used for satellites services, and these services occupy spectrum re-farming and clearance that is urgently needed. In addition, the 2.6GHz/2.3GHz frequency is actively and efficiently used to achieve the 80-100MHz/ operation at the core band C-band/2.6Ghz/2.3Ghz and to maximize the advantages of 5G continuous large bandwidth.

Rapid development of wireless services is driving the evolution of microwave technologies and optimization of spectrum policies. To meet the large capacity requirements of 10Gbps, innovative technologies such as 8K QAM, CA, MIMO, and CCIC effectively improve microwave spectral efficiency, provides high-bandwidth backhaul for 5G networks, and reduces operators’ network construction costs.

“The microwave spectrum leasing cost is increasing rapidly with the increasing rate. The microwave spectrum policy optimization in terms of leasing mode, charging mode, resource opening, and application mode will effectively reduce the network construction cost and accelerate the development of the wireless industry,” Xu added.

The 5G indoor technology has become a hot topic for operators, industry associations, tower vendors, service integrators, and analysts. A survey conducted at the conference showed that 91% of the participants believe deployment of digital indoor systems is very important for 5G. Some 43% of participants believed they should build digital indoor systems now allowing evolution to 5G.

5G has a powerful industry integration capability and is a native platform for unlimited MBB to deliver an ultimate user experience. It is also a native platform for fixed and mobile convergence with new services such as AR/VR, IoT + AI, which better enable the digital transformation of various industries. At the same time, operators’ pressure on operations are increasing while facing the rapid growth of MBB traffic requirements. In the 5G era, the mobile industry should work together to reshape the business value of MBB to establish business models based on traffic, speed, latency, and connectivity, to realize traffic, speed, latency, and connection monetization.