[Shenzhen, China, June 22, 2016] Telefonica and Huawei signed a 5G & NG-RAN Joint Innovation Agreement in Shenzhen, which is a further cooperation step of Telefonica and Huawei on 5G, based on the strategic Memorandum of Understanding signed in Hong Kong on November 5th, 2015.

With the fast development of mobile internet and IoT (Internet of Things), mobile broadband will penetrate all areas of the society, and the users expect a better blueprint for a better connected world. The future diverse applications which requires ultra-high throughput, low latency and massive connection, need a revolution of the current cellular network. Both operators and vendors are seeking ways to increase the network coverage and capacity, reduce the network operation cost by simplifying maintenance, saving energy, and improving efficiency and flexibility to implement new services.

The joint cooperation in the 5G & NG-RAN covers CloudRAN, 5G Radio User Centric No Cell, 5G Core Re-Architect and Massive MIMO innovation projects, aiming to improve the spectrum efficiency and build a cloud-native architecture. 5G Core architecture evolution and research on CloudRAN, would be the major cooperation areas between Telefonica and Huawei.

David Wang, President of Huawei Wireless Network and Enrique Blanco, Chief Technology Officer, Telefonica Group, Signed Joint Innovation Agreement on 5G&NG-RAN

“Telefonica has certain insights about the future trends of the mobile network. Huawei is investing massively in the 5G key enabling innovative technologies. The cooperation between Telefonica and Huawei will help to build a better connected world.” said David Wang, President of Huawei Wireless Network.

“We are very pleased to have reached this further agreement with Huawei to keep cooperating on 5G and the next generation RAN. The collaboration with Huawei in this area allows sharing the true requirements of a global operator as Telefonica, and helping to focus on providing the right solutions on this Advanced Network at the right time.” adds Enrique Blanco, Chief Technology Officer, Telefonica Group.

Due to the 6-year experience accumulation on 5G R&D, Huawei has achieved a wealth of experience in research and field tests. Huawei will team up with more partners in the industry to build the emerging 5G ecosystem and push forward the development of 5G.