Huawei Nepal CEO has forecasted that 5G will come to Nepal in the year 2021. Addressing the Media meet program in the capital organized by the company itself on Sunday, Huawei Nepal CEO Mr. Denny Deng expressed his view that the next-generation 5G technology is in the coming.
The company also launched Mate 30 Pro and 6 other products including smart accessories in the same program.
Huawei claims itself the No. 1 telecom vendor in the world and also having the leading position for 5G. Their latest figure shows 60 commercial contracts in the world with 400,000 5G base station shipments. The latest one to have a 5G deal is with Telefonica in Germany, which is the second-largest network carrier there. They also share that their technology in 5G is 12 to 18 months ahead of their competitors.
Huawei in Nepal
Huawei has also been at the forefront of the development of the telecom industry here in Nepal with more than 15,000 base stations in 2G, 3G, and 4G. That number is a great figure considering the fact that Nepal has one of the most difficult environments/terrains in the whole world including Everest Base Camp (EBC).
All the telecom operators have had partnered with Huawei to run its mobile network. As a matter of fact, Huawei has a whole range of products and solutions for not only telecom operators but for the whole ICT industry. Here is a timeline, major milestones of the Huawei’s 20 years service in the Telecom industry of Nepal.
- 1999: First Project
- 2000: Introduce the 2G network
- 2010: Introduce 3G network
- 2015: Network Recovery after Earthquake
- 2017: Introduce the 4G network
- 2019: Nationwide 4G expansion
- Future: 5G is coming (could be in 2021)
READ Major milestones in the telecommunication sector of Nepal.
Huawei’s Growth
When the ban was put into effect by the US on Huawei, for their allegations of espionage, everyone doubted the future of the company as they could not use US company’s hardware parts and software. But the result was astonishing as they could make 24.4% YOY growth despite the ban and also appeared as number 2 smartphone manufacturing dethroning Apple from that position.
They have shipped more than 200 million smartphones in 2019 and also provide solutions to top fortune 500 companies in their enterprise business. We can imagine where would have Huawei been if the ban was not in place.
Now they are working to be fully independent that means they are creating the whole ecosystem of their own. That includes the use of an operating system called Harmony OS for devices including smartphones which they say “It was never meant for Smartphones”.
Why 5G?
5G has superior performance than that of 4G in terms of faster data speed, lower latency. So, 5G will have data speed of multiple Gbps and latency of fewer than 10 milliseconds. 5G network enables you to download HD quality movies in a matter of seconds. Similarly, with a 5G network, a doctor can do the diagnosis and even operations from a remote location. The self-driving cars and industrial automation will be other use cases of the 5G network. Read What is 5G network and its application.
5G in Nepal
Last year MoCIT had directed Nepal Telecom to include 4 cities for a 5G trial in its 4G deal. We suppose they already made a provision on the 5G part being in line with the directives from MoCIT. As the telecom equipment supplier in the 4G contract (actually 4.5G) is also Huawei, it could be the same reference that Mr. Deng made for his forecast. Nepal Telecom is now using Huawei equipment for its 2G, 3G and 4G network.
We have even heard some rumors that private telco Ncell is working to study the feasibility of a 5G network in Nepal. Ncell also uses fair share of Huawei equipment for its mobile network. Similarly, there is another operator called CG telecom who already announced their partnership with Turkcell to operate a 5G network, for which the network vendor could be Huawei itself as they have already made a deal.
Although people have started speculating the 5G network in Nepal, it seems to be a very early stage as the regular NTA had no preparations for assigning the 5G spectrum band, one of the key requirements to roll out 5G.
There are beliefs that Nepal cannot afford 5G for now due to the huge investment. Similarly, some people opine that the country is not ready for 5G due to the limitation of its uses. Some even go further to say Nepal does not 5G at all for 5 years. But as people blame telecom companies to bring 4G late here in Nepal, it is high time that we start discussing 5G. Time has come for the whole telecom industry in Nepal including telecom companies, vendors and the regulator prepare well in advance for the 5G network, including the allocation of 5G spectrum band.
