SHANGHAI, June 28 — Global 5G users are expected to reach 5 billion in 2030 from 1.5 billion anticipated in 2023, according to Huawei Technologies Co Ltd.

Chief financial officer and rotating chairperson Sabrina Meng Wanzhou said 5G has been in commercial use around the world for four years and it has been driving new value creation across all industries and countless households around the world.

"The mobile industry’s contribution to global gross domestic product is anticipated to hit US$6 trillion in 2030.

"It (5G) is, therefore, changing the way we work and live, creating tremendous economic, industrial, and social value,” she said, adding that 5.5G is the next step forward.

Meng said this while delivering a keynote address titled "Embracing 5G Transformation” at the opening of the three-day Mobile World Congress (MWC) Shanghai 2023 here, today.

Elaborating on 5.5G as the next horizon, Meng, who is also the daughter of the company’s founder Ren Zhengfei, said the new technology will feature 10-gigabit downlink speeds, gigabit uplink speeds, the ability to support 100 billion connections, and native artificial intelligence.

"It will not only connect people better, but it will also create new business opportunities with more targeted support for industrial needs in domains like the internet of things (IoT), sensing, and advanced manufacturing,” she said.

To take the current 5G to the next level and ensure it provides greater value in various vertical markets, Meng said this requires finding the right technology for different scenarios and performing more comprehensive systems engineering.

"This requires diving deeper into industrial scenarios, truly understanding customers’ pain points, and adopting a more holistic systems engineering mindset,” she said.

Meng also called on the industry to work more closely together both up and down the value chain — with peers and partners, customers and developers — on solution modelling and optimisation, as well as tools and methodologies.

"The industry needs to pave the way for ongoing success throughout the entire product lifecycle, from research and development and procurement, to supply and marketing,” she said.

MWC Shanghai 2023 is held from June 28 to 30, 2023, whereby Huawei will showcase its products and solutions at stands E10 and E50 in Hall N1 of the Shanghai New International Expo Centre.

Together with global operators, industry professionals, and opinion leaders, the congress will feature topics such as speeding up 5G prosperity, striding towards the 5.5G era, and intelligent digital transformation. — Bernama