Shanghai’s Hongkou district has become the first area in the world with 5G connectivity, as well as a broadband gigabit network as China Mobile started trial operations. A total of 228 5G base stations have been deployed in Hongkou, making it the first district in Shanghai fully covered by a 5G network. The network is able to provide a peak single-user download speed of 1.6 Gbps, nearly 16 times faster than that of 4G. At the launch ceremony of the network, Vice Mayor of Shanghai Wu Qing made the network’s first 5G video call on a Huawei Mate X, the first phone with 5G capabilities. Zhang Jianming, Deputy Director of the Shanghai Commission of Economy and Informatization, said the city aims to build over 10,000 5G base stations by the end of the year, and the number is expected to exceed 30,000 by 2021.

To support the development of the technology, Hongkou has launched a 5G Global Innovation Hub in the North Bund area. The hub will include exhibition, innovation, applications and promotion of 5G technology to make Hongkou and Shanghai an information technology highland, according to the district government. There are all together 4,500 shipping companies and 1,200 financial companies and institutions in the North Bund area, spread over 3 million square meters of office buildings. Hongkou will mainly focus on the 5G applications on smart health care, intelligent education, smart buildings, the Hongkou Football Stadium, smart communities, drone cruises, urban security, urban management, financial services, culture and sports, and other major fields.

Hongkou-based companies and individuals are encouraged to take part in the coming 5G innovative application competition to develop a number of characteristic 5G applications and prepare for the commercial operation of 5G services. The 5G network is expected to provide solutions to industrial manufacturing, internet-connected cars, health care and city management. The Shanghai General Hospital and China Mobile have also announced a partnership on 5G technology for patient information transmission and communication. A Sino-Belgian incubator is also planned, the Shanghai Daily reports.

Soon consumers will have access to the network with their current SIM card and number, but they will have to buy new 5G phones.

Germany has no plans to block Huawei from participating in the buildup of its 5G ultra-high speed internet, Jochen Homann, President of the Bundesnetzagentur, Germany’s telecommunications regulator, told the Financial Times. He said that his agency did not have evidence that Huawei poses a security risk. Last month, the U.S. Ambassador to Berlin warned the German government that Washington would consider scaling back intelligence cooperation should Huawei be given a role in the 5G build out.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) aims to block an application by China Mobile to enter the U.S. market as a “common carrier”, that would enable it to carry international voice traffic between the U.S. and foreign countries. It would not provide domestic telephone or mobile services in the U.S. The FCC said approving the application would raise substantial and serious national security and law enforcement risks. If the FCC rejects China Mobile’s application, the company can ask a federal court to review that decision.

View of the Hanover trade fair on April 1

EU Commissioner Andrus Ansip, in charge of EU digital issues, said in an interview with the South China Morning Post that he is concerned that Chinese companies are legally bound to share information with the government’s intelligence apparatus back home. Ansip highlighted the urgency for the EU to complete its assessment of potential security threats, as several member nations plan to issue licenses for 5G networks soon. “Indeed, we will have to deal with risk assessment and the need for action is now; otherwise it will be too late,” Ansip said. “This has an influence on our economy and our democracy. Any vulnerability in 5G networks or a cyberattack targeting the future networks in one member state would affect the union as a whole,” he said. Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, the Netherlands, Lithuania and Portugal are all preparing to auction 5G licenses this year; six other EU countries will do so next year. According to Ansip, individual EU countries may decide whether they want to ban any company on national security grounds.

After an investigation which lasted for more than three months, the Belgian Center for Cybersecurity (CCB) has found no indications that Huawei was spying and is therefore not issuing a negative advise to the government on the use of Huawei’s equipment. Proximus, Orange en Telenet/Base are all using Huawei’s equipment. It is now up to Prime Minister Charles Michel to take a stand, taking into account not only security, but all political and diplomatic aspects of the case.

Huawei announced that it aimed to increase the revenue of its consumer business group, which chiefly includes smartphones and personal computers, to USD100 billion in three years and to USD150 billion in five years. The announcement came after the business group posted USD52.5 billion in revenue last year, up 45% year-on-year. It also marked Huawei achieving the target of USD50 billion two years ahead of schedule. Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei’s Consumer Business Group, said that the company is likely to become the largest smartphone vendor by the end of this year at the earliest, although its products are not available in the United States and South Korea due to “non-market factors”. He added that currently, one of every three smartphones sold in China is from Huawei and he hopes that in the near future, two out of every three smartphones sold in China will be from Huawei. The company is also becoming the top smartphone vendor in several European countries. In 2018, Huawei shipped over 200 million smartphones and it is likely to ship about 230 to 250 million units this year.

Yu also unveiled the P30 smartphone series in Shanghai. Priced from CNY3,988 in China, the P30 Pro comes with optimized photo-shooting capabilities. By leveraging artificial intelligence and a new light sensor, the new model would significantly boost light absorption to create better photos, even in near darkness.

Meanwhile, Unisoc Technologies Co, a core chip subsidiary of Tsinghua Unigroup, has unveiled its first 5G chipset for the Internet of Things (IoT) devices. The IVY510 chipset can deliver high data-rate mobile broadband services such as streaming augmented reality and virtual reality, as well as 4K and 8K high-definition video. “IoT will generate bigger opportunities than smartphones in the 5G era,” Zhou Chen, Vice President at Unisoc, said on the sidelines of the China Information Technology Expo in Shenzhen. Products powered by the new chipset will hit the market in the fourth quarter of this year. Unisoc is a leading fabless semiconductor company, founded after its parent company acquired Spreadtrum Communications, the world’s third-largest mobile phone chipmaker, in 2013, and RDA Microelectronics, the fourth-largest, in 2014.

More applications for 5G technology are shaping up. The Shanghai General Hospital and China Mobile, recently announced a partnership to develop communications on 5G between ambulances and the hospital. The two partners said 5G may be the deciding factor between life and death as they announced plans to establish a 5G technology-based treatment center. It will connect 40 hospitals in the Yangtze River Delta for long-distance surgery education services.

Huawei Technologies is making its biggest push to ensure cybersecurity for the rollout of its 5G technology as it eyes double-digit growth in 2019 despite challenges in overseas markets. Guo Ping, Huawei’s rotating Chairman, said the company’s performance in the past 30 years has proved that it has the best security record in the telecom industry. Huawei will spend USD2 billion over the next five years on enhancing its software engineering capabilities, making “both the company’s coding processes and results secure and trustworthy”, he said.

The Dutch security service AIVD advised the government not to use technology from countries with active cyber-hacking campaigns against the Netherlands, such as China and Russia. The recommendation came as the Dutch government is weighing options for a new 5G telecommunications network in the coming years. But Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has refused to rule out doing business with Chinese technology companies.

“Openness, cooperation and unified global standards are keys to commercializing the fifth-generation wireless technology,” said Miao Wei, China’s Minister of Industry and Information Technology. “The internet of vehicles, represented by autonomous driving, is likely to become the earliest application of 5G technology,” Miao said, predicting that 80% of 5G applications will involve communication between objects. Huawei has confirmed that as of early March it has signed 30 5G contracts – 18 in Europe, 9 in the Middle East, and 3 in the Asia-Pacific, with a total of 40,000 5G base stations shipped. Ericsson has publicly announced 16 5G contracts, five of them within Europe, while Nokia has signed over 70 agreements across the globe, according to their websites. Huawei’s consumer business sector has surpassed its carrier business for the first time in 2018 and became the largest contributor to its overall revenue, with a total 206 million smartphones shipped last year. Huawei is now the second-largest smartphone vendor based on global market share, and aims to overtake Samsung as the top player by 2020.

Last week, South Korea became the first country with a nation-wide 5G network. In Shanghai, China Mobile began a trial run of its 5G network in Hongkou district. During the kickoff ceremony, Shanghai Vice Mayor Wu Qing made the first video call under the 5G network using a Huawei Mate X handset, the world’s first 5G foldable AI phone.The city aims to build over 10,000 5G base stations by the end of this year. Shanghai also aims to nurture over 100 innovative companies specialized in exploring 5G-related application scenarios, whose industrial output is expected to reach CNY100 billion by 2021. China is expected to become the world’s largest 5G market by 2025, accounting for 460 million 5G connections, or 28% of the global total.

The U.S. and China are engaged in a tight race to implement 5G. The U.S. moved from third place in 2018 to tie China at the top this year in the latest study on the 5G commitments of countries by telecoms research firm Analysys Mason. It also ranked South Korea, as well as Japan and the UK, among the top five in global 5G readiness. China retains a significant infrastructure advantage. A recent study showed China with more than 14 wireless cell sites per 10,000 people, compared to 4.7 in the U.S., and more than five sites per 10 square miles (25.9 square km), compared to 0.4 in the U.S.

Meanwhile, Huawei launched its latest smartphone, the P30 in Paris, France, featuring an innovative optical lens and camera that could redefine smartphone photography. The Huawei P30 Pro is equipped with a new Leica Quad camera system, including four rear-facing cameras: a 40-megapixel (MP) camera with a super spectrum sensor, a 20 MP ultra-wide angle camera, an 8 MP telephoto camera, and a time-of-flight (ToF) camera, which captures depth-of-field information to deliver accurate image segmentation. The 32MP front camera takes selfies to a new level. The Huawei P30 has the best camera performance of all smartphones, according to France-based DxOMark that specializes in image quality. “The P30 series can serve as a telescope, microscope and night vision goggles,” a Huawei employee said at the launch event.

The European Commission has ignored U.S. calls to ban Chinese telecom equipment supplier Huawei as it announced a series of cybersecurity recommendations for next-generation mobile networks. Huawei said in a statement it welcomed the Commission’s “objective and proportionate” recommendations. “Huawei understands the cybersecurity concerns that European regulators have. Based on mutual understanding, Huawei looks forward to contributing to the European framework on cybersecurity. We are firmly committed to continuing working with all regulators and partners to make the 5G roll-out in Europe a success”, Huawei said.

In its guidance for the roll-out of 5G telecom systems in the coming years, the Commission urged member states to assess cyber threats to the 5G infrastructure in their national markets. That information should then be shared among EU countries as part of a coordinated effort to develop a “toolbox of mitigating measures” and minimum common standards for 5G network security by the end of the year, according to the recommendations. It is a setback for the United States, which has been lobbying allies in Europe to boycott Huawei over fears its equipment could be used by the Chinese government to carry out cyber espionage.

The EU Commissioner for the Digital Single Market, Andrus Ansip, acknowledged those concerns, saying they stem from Beijing’s 2017 intelligence law that compels Chinese companies to assist in intelligence gathering. “I think we have to be worried about this,” Ansip said at a press briefing in Strasbourg, France. However, the EU Commission prefers to secure Europe’s critical digital infrastructure with a more nuanced approach, rather than bowing to U.S. pressure for blanket bans. Huawei has repeatedly insisted there has never been evidence it was responsible for any security breaches. The Commission’s guidance is non-binding, but EU countries often use it as the basis for joint policies.

Huawei announced that its annual revenue rose 19.5% to CNY721.2 billion (or more than USD100 billion), with profit up 25% to CNY59.3 billion. Smartphones and other consumer goods comprised the bulk of earnings, with the carrier business slightly down on last year, although it is forecast to jump as 5G network contracts are signed. Huawei has already signed contracts accounting for 28% of the global market. The company also called on other telecom vendors to open up their source code to scrutiny. Huawei is the only major telecoms equipment vendor that not only ensures the safety and credibility of its products, but also allows a British watchdog to review and test source codes to ensure safety, Guo Ping, Huawei’s rotating Chairman, said during the company’s annual results conference in Shenzhen. “We’ve raised the bar in the industry to ensure not only the products tested during delivery are safe, but our entire development processes are also credible,” he said. “That’s why we opened our source codes for testing. I believe that through this practice we are setting an example for the whole industry, hoping other vendors will keep up with us and do not lag behind.”

China is set to become the world’s largest 5G market, with 460 million users of the next-generation super-fast network by 2025. China plays a pioneering role in constructing the network and experimenting with cutting-edge applications such as remote surgeries, according to a report by the Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA), which represents the interests of more than 750 mobile operators worldwide. The number of users in China is forecast to be higher than that of Europe (205 million) and the United States (187 million) combined. Mats Granryd, Director General of GSMA, said: “After spending billions over the last decade deploying 4G networks to all corners of the country, Chinese mobile operators are now set to invest a further USD58 billion over the next two years to prepare for and begin 5G rollouts, laying the groundwork for China to become one of the world’s leading 5G markets.” Backed by 5G, China’s mobile ecosystem is expected to add CNY6 trillion in value to the national economy in 2023, up from CNY5.2 trillion last year.

China’s big three mobile operators – China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom – are conducting 5G trial operations in a number of cities and plan to fully commercialize the technology in 2020. This month, with technological support from Huawei and China Mobile, a patient with Parkinson’s disease underwent China’s first 5G-based remote surgery. A doctor in Sanya, Hainan province, remotely manipulated surgical instruments to implant a deep brain stimulator known as a ‘brain pacemaker’ into a patient 2,500 kilometers away in Beijing. Meanwhile, Shanghai University of Engineering and Technology (SUET) has become China’s first university to have full 5G coverage on its campus. In April, Songjiang University Town – an education hub located in Shanghai’s Songjiang district where the SUET and a few other universities are located – will have 5G coverage. Later it will be extended to the Songjiang G60 Science and Innovation Corridor, transforming it into the country’s first industrialized demonstration base.

Chancellor Angela Merkel signaled she is loath to cave in to U.S. pressure to bar Huawei Technologies, saying she will not single out individual vendors as Germany toughens its security requirements for mobile networks. “There are two things I don’t believe in,” Merkel said at the Global Solutions Summit in Berlin. “First, to discuss these very sensitive security questions publicly, and second, to exclude a company simply because it’s from a certain country.’’ The United States has warned it could scale back the sharing of sensitive information with Berlin if it does not exclude hardware made by Huawei from its 5G infrastructure, arguing that Chinese equipment could help Beijing spy on Western companies and governments. NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe, U.S. General Curtis Scaparrotti, warned Germany that NATO forces would cut communications if Berlin were to work with Huawei.

Huawei Technologies was the top corporate filer of international patent applications in 2018, leading an Asia-based innovation surge accounting for over half of the applications submitted to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) last year. “Asia is now the majority filer of international patent applications via WIPO, which is an important milestone for that economically dynamic region and underscores the historical geographical shift of innovative activity from West to East,” said WIPO Director General Francis Gurry. WIPO statistics showed that 50.5% of all Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) applications filed in 2018 came from Asia, with Europe and North America accounting for about a quarter each. U.S.-based applicants filed 56,142 PCT applications, followed by applicants from China, 53,345, and Japan, 49,702. Huawei, with a record number of 5,405 published PCT applications, was the top corporate filer in 2018, which is “an all-time record by anyone,” Gurry said. Huawei was followed by Mitsubishi Electric (2,812), Intel (2,499), Qualcomm (2,404) and ZTE (2,080), the Shanghai Daily reports.

Meanwhile, Oppo strengthened its position as the second-largest player in the domestic smartphone market, and is pushing hard to go global. At the end of February, Oppo unveiled its first 5G smartphone and announced that four foreign telecom carriers – Swisscom, Australia’s Telstra and Optus, and SingTel of Singapore – are to be among the first to sell the 5G model in the second quarter of this year. The 5G handset will use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 855 chipset and X50 modem. Oppo’s smartphones are now available in more than 40 countries and regions, including nine European markets. In the fourth quarter of 2018, Oppo outcompeted Samsung to become the largest smartphone vendor in Thailand with a market share of 22.2%, growing about 70% year-on-year, according to Canalys. In 2018, Oppo shipped 113 million smartphones worldwide, gaining a global market share of more than 8%, according to IDC. Oppo has over 40,000 employees globally, with 10 manufacturing facilities and six research institutes across the world.