Huawei will ramp-up its 5G efforts and offerings, which will play a crucial role in the Chinese multinational telecommunications company meeting its target of $200 billion sales revenue by 2024.
This is according to Alex Du Min, Huawei Enterprise MD, outlining the company's strategy yesterday at the Huawei Eco Connect event in Johannesburg.
In 2018, Huawei Technologies maintained strong business growth globally, with total revenue reaching $105 billion, up 19.5% year-on-year, with its net profit reaching $8.7 billion, up 25.1% year-on-year, noted Du Min.
The Europe, Middle East and Africa region generated approximately $29.8 million for the firm last year.
Huawei Enterprise revenue reached $10.9 billion, up 23.8% year-on-year and intends to double its revenue every two years.
"Last year was a difficult year for the industry but we reached our target of exceeding $100 billion for the first time, up from $72 billion in 2017. We intend to double our revenue every two years and in the next five years we are aiming to reach the $200 billion revenue mark," he said.
"In line with our policy of investing no less than 10% of our revenue into our research and development (R&D), our R&D team has invested 14.6% back into their initiatives, with a continued focus on our 5G offerings."
In August 2018, US president Donald Trump banned the US government's use of equipment made by Huawei. The US is also pushing allies to follow suit and keep Huawei out of planned 5G networks.
In February, Czech Republic and Norway joined the list of countries considering excluding Huawei from equipment tenders, as Germany weighed in on what it would need to be convinced to allow the Chinese tech giant to bid for 5G contracts.
In response, Huawei sued the US government, seeking a declaratory judgement that the restrictions targeted against it are unconstitutional.
Fully committed to 5G
Despite this, Du Min said that in 2019, Huawei is expecting 15% to 20% revenue growth, and the company has rolled out new technologies such as WiFi 6, All Flash and intelligent vehicle solutions, with plans to continue its strong focus on 5G offerings to meet this target.
The company recently unveiled its first 5G foldable smartphone, the Huawei Mate X, and says it will roll out other 5G phones in the near future.
At Mobile World Congress 2019, Huawei released the 5G Simplified Solution aimed at helping operators build 5G networks with superior performance and lower operating costs.
At the event, Huawei also announced a partnership with mobile data only network operator, Rain, which saw the launch of the first 5G commercial network in SA.
"We are one year ahead of competitors in the 5G market, and we are the only end-to-end 5G provider in the world," noted Du Min.
"5G is an important technology that ensures good quality, reliable, fast connectivity becomes a reality, as using traditional fibre in most countries is very difficult and quite costly. 5G enables super broadband speeds and limited latency. Together with big data, Internet of things (IOT) and artificial intelligence (AI), 5G enables the synergies to ensure acceleration and success of enterprises across industries."
While local operators like Vodacom and MTN have been trialling 5G for months now, experts say SA has a number of hurdles it must clear before 5G becomes a reality in the country.
Huawei will also continue to strengthen focus on its full stack AI, and its open digital platform which streamlines the application of digital transformation initiatives such as big data, cloud, AI and IOT, said Du Min.
5G expectations
Also speaking at Huawei Eco Connect yesterday, Ranjit Rajan, associate VP, Middle East, Turkey and Africa at IDC, discussed the benefits of 5G.
He said the technology will transform the IOT landscape, providing organisations with the opportunity to create several use cases which are currently not possible, such as remote robotic surgeries, autonomous vehicle capabilities, enabling lower latency, massive connection density and improved energy efficiency.
"The rollout of 5G will happen in two phases globally. The first phase is what is known as non-standalone 5G, where 5G technologies are installed on existing 4G networks, which we are already seeing in various countries.
"The second type is standalone 5G, where we will see the 5G code replace the 4G code and that will take some time before it's fully rolled out.
"This week, South Korea launched the world's first nationwide 5G mobile network, so different countries around the world will have different plans around the nationwide launch of 5G and we are expecting this to happen in the next few years," concluded Rajan.
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