5G: securing Europe’s values in tomorrow’s world

Huawei today unveiled a new campaign “Vote for 5G, Vote Smarter” aimed at promoting the awareness of 5G opportunities and their role in strengthening European values.

“Future technologies like 5G will better safeguard Europe’s social model and the European way of life,” commented Abraham Liu, Huawei’s Chief Representative to the European institutions. Speaking on the anniversary of the Schuman Declaration, Mr Liu said: “9 May is a special day for Europe. On that day back in 1950, French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman delivered a remarkable declaration that braced Europe for the future. In 2019, Europe Day is celebrated at a moment when new technologies will bring tremendous changes to the society and the future. Huawei cares about a strong and united Europe. We are ready to work with the EU to roll out 5G the European way.”  

The Huawei campaign, which is being deployed in Brussels and online, focuses on people and how 5G can impact their lives positively.

“Everything we use and need can be improved by 5G. It will help us meet targets such as the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and European Commission objectives on, for example, climate change and on road safety. For this to happen, choices have to be made. Choices of how to reconcile European values with revolutionary new technologies that are about to impact profoundly on our way of living,” said Mr Liu.

More network capacity needed for 5G

Experts predict a 1 000-fold increase in the demand for wireless capacity over the next decade. Not only will more people be connected to the Internet, but vastly more ‘things’. The so-called Internet of Things will see an explosion in machine-to-people and machine-to-machine communications, connecting some 100 billion devices by 2024, generating a sharp increase in mobile broadband demand. Operators will need the support of political decision-makers to bring the massive amount of new capacity online.

Worldwide 5G revenues are expected to reach the equivalent of €225 billion in 2025. The benefits of 5G introduction across four key industrial sectors alone - namely automotive, health, transport and energy - may reach €114 billion per year.

Sectors such as connected vehicles, public transport, logistics, health care, education, energy, the environment and manufacturing, as well as public institutions and government, are all already undergoing a profound digital transformation in the run-up to widespread deployment of 5G from 2020 onwards.

Huawei R&D in 5G

Huawei has been researching 5G technologies for over 10 years. In the past five years alone, it has invested over 530 million euros in 5G R&D.

In Europe, Huawei has participated in 13 Horizon 2020 projects on 5G since 2012, and trials 5G technologies in testbeds in Munich, Germany, at the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom and in Bari, Italy. It is also a board member of the 5G Infrastructure Association, the private side of the 5G Public-Private Partnership (5GPPP), the joint initiative between the European Commission and the European ICT industry.

Huawei is also a founding member of the 5G Automotive Association - with Audi, BMW, Daimler, Ericsson, Intel, Nokia, and Qualcomm - which addresses people's demands for connected mobility and road safety and promotes applications such as automated driving and ubiquitous access to services.

In addition, the company supported the establishment of the 5G Alliance for Connected Industries and Automation (5G-ACIA). The Alliance is committed to promoting Industry 4.0 and enabling more smart manufacturing applications and scenarios.

Huawei in Europe

Huawei currently has over 12 000 staff based in Europe, of whom nearly 2 400 are working in R&D. We run 23 R&D centres located in 14 European countries and operate numerous joint innovation centres in partnership with telecom and ICT partners. Our European Research Institute (ERI) in Leuven, Belgium, was launched in 2015 to manage this research network and drive digital transformation across Europe.