Huawei’s Middle East president talks 5G and security concerns

Huawei’s Middle East president talks 5G and security concerns

Intelligent CIO talks to Charles Yang, President, Huawei Middle East Region, about the development of 5G in the region and security concerns about the company. “We believe that before any country says Huawei poses a threat or not, they should first assess Huawei’s history, value and contributions to society,” he says.

How does early deployment of 5G technologies help states and companies in the region in their Digital Transformation plans?

In the ME region, regulators took a good position to push 5G in an open way. We continue to collaborate with governments and customers to push 5G in the ME region, which will very soon be in a top position globally with regards to 5G.

5G is growing much faster than expected. All factors that 5G needs are ready now. We already had 5G chipsets in 2018. In 2019, vendors like Huawei, Samsung have announced 5G smartphones. As for spectrum, most countries in the region have been prepared for 5G, like UAE, Saudi and Kuwait.

Moreover, through close co-operation between government entities, operators, vendors and vertical partners, Middle East countries are in the first wave of 5G commercial launches, standing at the global forefront. Many operators have already deployed or announced their plans to deploy large-scale networks.

Large-scale rollouts started since 2018. I’m proud to say that our GCC countries are in the first wave of 5G rollout. By estimation, we will have 1 million 5G sites globally in 2019 and 5G is obviously accelerating. We think it will only take three years to achieve 500 million users for 5G, which took six years for 4G and nine years for 3G.

The region’s economic value will definitely be bolstered by the roll-out of 5G broadband, enabling more people, things and devices to be connected than ever before. 5G will facilitate the kind of real-time data sharing and analysis and will generate unprecedented productivity in government, society, enterprises and even on an individual level.

Just like the transformation brought by electricity to society over one hundred years ago, 5G will bring a revolutionary change to the future of society. As a crucial digital service enabler, 5G can offer ultra-high-speed and ultra-low-latency, delivering huge amounts of data collected from our connected world. With this intelligent connectivity, it will be much easier to handle thousands of devices simultaneously.

The Middle East governments looks at 5G as a real enabler of economies and societies. Middle East governments look at 5G as a real enabler of their Digital Transformation journeys. This is true because 5G is powerful technology that will change the future of all industries and sectors.

What are the major milestones Huawei has been able to achieve in 5G technologies on the international scene?

5G is an end-to-end system and Huawei’s strength is not only in wireless but in all aspects of 5G, from devices, to network, and to ecosystems. We are keen to support the Middle East region to be in the first wave globally in 5G technology.

Huawei started to develop its own 5G technology as early as in 2009. In 2013, Huawei hired more than 300 top experts from the wireless industry around the world and announced that they put $600 million investment in 5G research. In 2016, Huawei set up a 5G product line for 5G products. Today, thousands of employees are engaged in 5G product development. Following this, in 2017 and 2018 Huawei invested almost US$1.4 billion into 5G product development.

In 2018, Huawei announced the world’s most powerful 5G chipset. In 2019, Huawei announced the world’s first foldable 5G smartphone – Mate X. Regarding 5G networks, Huawei’s wireless technology has ranked number one in all the top performance tests. Just this summer, Huawei won the ‘Best 5G Core Network Technology’ award at the 5G World Summit 2019.

The root reason for Huawei’s leadership in 5G is our insistent and heavy investment in 5G for the past 10 years. We have achieved a lot of breakthrough in innovations.  For example, most of the key chipsets in equipment and devices are self-designed.

Regarding ecosystems, Huawei has built Xlab in order to jointly innovate 5G use cases with our customers and partners. We have brought 283 global industry partners and 57 regional partners into Xlab. Based on that we are jointly working with Etisalat, STC, and others in order to innovate the most suitable and profitable use cases in the Middle East today. The company also collaborates with carriers and industry partners to continuously develop 5G applications in vertical industries, enable a thriving industry ecosystem, and make full preparations for the mature commercial use of 5G.

Moreover, network security is Huawei’s highest priority and it overarches everything. Huawei has served 3 billion users with 1,500 networks over 170 countries for the past 30 years, and Huawei has maintained a very solid record that we have never had a serious network security incident.

Huawei has also developed 11 5G R&D centers all around the world and utilises more than 5,700 5G R&D experts and engineers to advance the future of the 5G revolution.

Moving forward, our carrier business will seize the first wave of business opportunities for 5G in the Middle East region. We will work hard to leverage our end-to-end strengths to achieve strategic leadership and enhance trust. As always, we need to strive to create greater value for our customers. We need to use innovative business solutions to help them increase profitability.

Are the US and some of the western countries’ concerns about the security of Huawei 5G technologies justified?

Cybersecurity is Huawei’s highest priority and it overarches everything. Huawei has served 3 billion users with 1,500 networks over 170 countries for the past 30 years, and Huawei has maintained a very solid record that we have never had a serious network security incident.

We reject the US government’s claims as groundless, meritless and without fact. In over 30 years of business, supporting more than a third of the world’s population today, Huawei has never compromised anyone’s security, nor would we. We have grown into a $100 billion plus business only because our customers and governments around the world trust Huawei.

We have never been asked by the Chinese government or any other government, to do anything that would weaken the security of a product. Only about 30% of the components in Huawei products are actually made by the company – the rest of the components are obtained from a global supply chain that Huawei closely monitors in order to prevent security breaches.

5G brings benefits to people and offers us information channels and pipes. These channels and pipes are controlled by operators and governments. We provide equipment only, similar to water pipes and taps. They won’t be a big threat to security.

We believe that our customers in the Middle East region make their own assessment and decisions. We believe that before any country says Huawei poses a threat or not, they should first assess Huawei’s history, value and contributions to society.

Do you have any figures to elaborate how much 5G technology is expected to add to the UAE and or the MENA region’s economies by a certain date?

The likely contribution of 5G to an economy has been the subject of many studies. Most agree that, to derive the maximum benefits, a country or a region will need to have a high existing level of mobile penetration, and a clear roadmap for deploying digital platforms. With one of the highest rates of mobile adoption in the world, the GCC region appears well positioned to benefit significantly from 5G.

According to the GSMA, in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, mobile technologies and services generated around 4.2% of GDP in 2016, equating to $165 billion of economic value. In the period to 2020 the GSMA expects this to increase to almost $200 billion (4.3% of GDP).

In the GCC region, a study we conducted with Analysys Mason estimates that 5G will provide a cumulative new revenue opportunity over ten years totaling $273 billion, with about 50% of this addressable by mobile operators (MNOs) and the rest by other ICT players.

Huawei advocates openness, collaboration and shared success. Through joint innovation with our customers and partners, we are expanding the value of ICT to develop a more robust and symbiotic industry ecosystem. Huawei is an active member of more than 400 standards organisations, industry alliances, and open source communities, where we work with our peers to develop mainstream standards and lay the foundation for shared success. Together, we are driving the industry forward.

Through continuous innovation in ICT infrastructure and smart devices, we are making technology simpler, more convenient, and more affordable, giving more people access to the benefits of digital technology. Our ultimate goal is to improve people’s quality of life and promote socioeconomic development.

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