Huawei officially launched its 5G multi-mode chipset Balong 5000 today – along with the first commercial 5G device powered by it, the Huawei 5G CPE Pro. Together, these two new products provide the world's fastest wireless connections for your smartphone, your home, the office, and on the go.
Balong 5000 officially unlocks the 5G era. This chipset supports a broad range of 5G products in addition to smartphones, including home broadband devices, vehicle-mounted devices, and 5G modules. It will provide consumers with a brand new 5G experience across multiple scenarios.
"The Balong 5000 will open up a whole new world to consumers," said the CEO of Huawei's Consumer Business Group, Richard Yu. "It will enable everything to sense, and will provide the high-speed connections needed for pervasive intelligence. Powered by the Balong 5000, the Huawei 5G CPE Pro enables consumers to access networks more freely and enjoy an incredibly fast connected experience. Huawei has an integrated set of capabilities across chips, devices, cloud services, and networks. Building on these strengths, as the leader of the 5G era, we will bring an inspired, intelligent experience to global consumers in every aspect of their lives."
Balong 5000: Ushering in the 5G era
With a small form factor and high degree of integration, Balong 5000 supports 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G on a single chip. It effectively reduces latency and power consumption when exchanging data between different modes, and will significantly enhance user experience in the early stages of commercial 5G deployment. Balong 5000 marks a significant step forward for the Balong series of chipsets.
Balong 5000 is the first chipset to perform to industry benchmarks for peak 5G download speeds. At Sub-6 GHz (low-frequency bands, the main spectrum used for 5G), Balong 5000 can achieve download speeds up to 4.6 Gbps. On mmWave spectrum (high-frequency bands used as extended spectrum for 5G), Balong 5000 can achieve download speeds up to 6.5 Gbps – 10 times faster than top 4G LTE speeds on the market today.
Balong 5000 is also the world's first chipset that supports both standalone (SA) and non-standalone (NSA) network architectures for 5G. With non-standalone, 5G network architecture is built on top of legacy 4G LTE networks, whereas standalone 5G, as the name implies, will have its own independent architecture. Balong 5000 can flexibly meet different user and carrier requirements for connecting devices throughout different stages of 5G development.
Balong 5000 is the world's first multi-mode chipset that supports Vehicle to Everything (V2X) communications, providing low-latency and highly reliable solutions for connected vehicles. Huawei's 5G smartphones powered by Balong 5000 will be released at this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
Huawei 5G CPE Pro: Changing user experiences in home broadband networks
Powered by Balong 5000, the Huawei 5G CPE Pro supports both 4G and 5G wireless connections. On a 5G network, a 1-GB HD video clip can be downloaded within three seconds, and 8K video can be streamed smoothly without lag. This sets a new benchmark for home CPEs. In addition to homes, the Huawei 5G CPE Pro can also be used by small and medium-sized enterprises for super-fast broadband access.
Adopting new Wi-Fi 6 technology, the Huawei 5G CPE Pro delivers speeds of up to 4.8 Gbps. It is the first 5G CPE that supports HUAWEI HiLink protocols, bringing smart homes into the 5G era.
As a 5G pioneer, Huawei began research and development in 5G as early as 2009, and is currently the industry's only vendor that can provide end-to-end 5G systems. Huawei has more than 5,700 engineers dedicated to 5G R&D, including over 500 5G experts. In total, Huawei has established 11 joint innovation centers for 5G
Success Secrets: How you can Pass Huawei Certification Exams in first attempt
Society is on the cusp of a world where everything is connected to the Internet, has sensory capabilities, and is informed or enhanced by artificial intelligence.
In this diverse and complicated world, the pace of change will accelerate. Boundaries between different organizations will blur, and humans will work with intelligent machines.
These disruptions will bring massive opportunities and challenges, putting companies and managers to the test by asking hard questions:
How can we maintain strategic focus?
What steps can we take to encourage innovation?
How can we create synergy with global resources?
What inspires passion across the organization?
How can we unleash the full potential of our talent?
Over the years, Huawei has figured out its own solutions to these questions.
The first is strategic focus
Huawei maintains a strategic focus on data – specifically, the massive increase in the quantity of digital data flowing across the world’s broadband networks.
By 2025, about 180 zettabytes of data will be generated every year. There will be over 100 billion connections, and 85% of enterprise applications will be deployed on the cloud. Such massive volumes of data will require bigger, wider, faster data pipes. This presents Huawei with strategic opportunities.
As more opportunities arise, we must identify what we should focus on – and what we should give up. Huawei’s strategy is to focus on ICT infrastructure and smart devices, with the aim of ushering in an intelligent world. We’ll also advance our AI strategy to deliver pervasive intelligence.
And we clearly know what we shouldn’t focus on
In the cloud domain, for example, we do not monetize customer data, develop industry applications, or make equity investments in application partners. In the Internet of Things (IoT) domain, we don’t provide end-to-end solutions – we only provide enabling technologies such as networks, platforms, and operating systems for IoT. Our recently announced AI strategy also aims at communications networks, with the goal of using AI to enhance Huawei’s product and service competencies.
Second, we will pursue continuous innovation
In an intelligent world, innovation is what allows enterprises to stand out from the competition.
What’s the secret to continuous innovation?
In the past, Huawei prioritized customer needs. Now, we’ve adopted a two-track strategy focused on both customer needs and technological innovation.
Huawei believes the R&D process is like a marathon. It invests more than 10% of its annual revenue into R&D. From 2008 to 2017, its R&D investments topped CNY400 billion ($US58 billion). Last year, Huawei ranked sixth on the EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard.
Soon, Huawei will increase its investment in basic research: areas such as mathematics, algorithms, and chipsets. This portion of investment will account for 20% to 30% of Huawei’s annual R&D spending of US$15 billion to US$20 billion.
Innovation is never a solo sport. That’s why Huawei has established 36 joint innovation centers and 16 OpenLabs with customers and partners around the world. Huawei is now a member of more than 360 standards bodies, industry alliances, and open source communities, and has participated in the development of crucial industry standards. Huawei is committed to enabling every person, home, and organization to benefit from technological innovation.
Third, we need to draw on the best talent from around the world
Huawei operates in more than 170 countries and regions, and has 180,000 employees from over 160 nationalities. Our localization rate in some markets is as high as 70%.
In the coming intelligent world, one of Huawei’s core strengths will be that we have global resources. We will need to fully integrate them, build a global value chain, and ensure that value delivered by each link along the chain can be shared by our global customers.
For example, Huawei has established 14 R&D institutes and centers with offices across 18 countries and regions. The one located in Russia focuses on mathematics and the Milan Research Center in Italy is dedicated to research into microwave technology. These centers also help develop and retain local talent, create jobs, and boost local economies – an example of the shared success for which Huawei always strives.
Fourth, we need to inspire passion across the organization
Our founder, Ren Zhengfei, has said that we must be sure we’re headed in the right direction, and that the organization is full of vitality. In the past, many major companies have collapsed because they failed to adapt to the times. The coming intelligent world will be full of uncertainties, and Huawei must embrace change to avoid such pitfalls.
To be specific, Huawei is streamlining its internal processes. For every segment or checkpoint we add to our processes, we must eliminate two existing ones.
We also want our departments to be more flexible and nimble. That’s why we have been delegating authority to field offices and letting employees who are closest to our customers make decisions.
Fifth, we do everything we can to unleash talent potential
Future competition will center on attracting and retaining talent. In the age of AI, the talent pyramid is being reshaped. The talent structure of organizations will become more diamond-shaped, with AI systems taking the place of people at the bottom and handling huge volumes of repetitive and routine tasks. More creative high-end talent, and top professionals like data scientists, will be in great demand.
Success Secrets: How you can Pass Huawei Certification Exams in first attempt
In November I was invited to speak at a conference in Mexico on the subject of “What’s Next for Content” outlining my predictions on the future of the video content business. Of course, if I was able to predict anything accurately then I would be rich already and living on an idyllic island off the coast of this fine country…But the topic did make me consider the trends in the entertainment business, where they are likely to lead and what role the telco can, will, and must fashion for itself over the next few years.
We all remember the excitement of 15 years ago when telcos realized that their new broadband networks could multicast video, giving them an equivalent method of distributing linear channels to households to the established pay TV companies using cable and satellite networks. And we all remember what happened next. In many markets, crushing disappointment as telcos worked out painfully, at great cost, and over a long time that satisfying viewers’ entertainment requirements was a lot more than the technical ability to deliver channels into the home.
With a few notable exceptions, IPTV at telcos was a commercial failure 15 years ago. And it’s taken 15 years for the industry to learn what entertainment retailing is actually about and how the trends are themselves defining the future role for the IP network provider. Let’s look at a few of those trends in no particular order and see where they take us.
4 Main Trends
Short and Sweet
The former boss of Disney and Dreamworks Jeffery Katzenberg has started a new studio with US$1 billion backing to make professional short-form content for small screens because that’s where young people are watching video these days. I suspect that the short-form content will not be the recipes, gaming walkthroughs, or self-help guides to replace iPhone batteries that litter YouTube, but rather high-quality dramas made by television professionals that happen to be presented in 10-minute chunks, reflecting shrinking attention spans or the duration of a daily commute on public transport. The short-form format popularized by amateur compilations of cats jumping a cucumber or unfortunates slipping on black ice in their driveways is now being turned into professionally produced drama.
VoD
The world’s oldest public service broadcaster, the BBC, has shut down one of its linear channels and diverted the brand (BBC3) and programming budget to an OTT on-demand video service. It’s still making original programming for the same youthful target audience and still creating breakout mainstream hits (the latest being the mockumentary series “This Country”), but they premier online first while the broadcaster saves the cost of DTT, satellite and cable bandwidth, up-linking and carriage fees for a whole linear channel.
High Budget OTT
After being sacked for a widely-publicized “unprovoked physical and verbal attack” on a producer, one of the biggest global TV stars of the hugely popular worldwide phenomenon Top Gear, Jeremy Clarkson, was snapped up with his co-presenters by Amazon Prime Video to front a high-budget version of their road trips called The Grand Tour distributed around the world on Amazon’s OTT video service. Meanwhile, the top TV producer Ryan Murphy has jumped ship from Fox/FX to Netflix with a promised US$300 million budget to perform his magic in the less regulated arena that is OTT video. In case you don’t follow such things we have to hope that his output for Netflix will be more like American Crime Story, Feud, American Horror Story, Murder House, or Asylum, and his breakout hit Nip/Tuck than the dreary Scream Queens or the incomprehensible American Horror Story Hotel. The trend is clear. Tier 1 TV talent both in front of and behind the camera is now moving from the constraints of network and cable TV channels to high-budget OTT services.
Streaming Sports
One of my old TV colleagues is now heading up a well-funded international OTT sports video service called Eleven Sports, which is busy buying up whatever rights it can get its hands on to stream direct to viewers. Meanwhile, Amazon bought the rights to stream 20 UK Premier League games a year from 2019 (satellite incumbent Sky and BT got most of the games). The rights Eleven Sports and Amazon are buying are emphatically tier two or tier three rights, but it’s early days for this unproven way of monetizing sports viewing, and the trend of that most coveted of video content – sports rights – moving to new OTT streaming services has clearly started.
So, four clear content trends. Now, do you remember the last time somebody launched a new linear TV channel? Of course not. All the new publishers are OTT services primarily looking for a direct relationship with their viewers.
And the big names are spending big too:
In 2018, Netflix is spending around US$8 billion, Amazon Prime about US$ 5billion, the US-only Hulu around US$2.5 billion, and Apple has earmarked US$1 billion for original content in 2019 on its as-yet unnamed new video service.
These budgets are similar to traditional broadcasters on non-sports content. NBC Universal spends more than US$10 billion while Fox, Time Warner, and Disney all spend around US$8 billion a year on original content. Smaller cable networks like AMC with its popular The Walking Dead franchise spends about US$1 billion. Apparently even FaceBook spends US$1 billion on original video content though I must admit I see no evidence of this in my feed of repurposed cats, natural disasters, and terrifying road junctions in developing countries.
A few years ago, people talked about The Sopranos, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and The Shield. Now, you can’t get to the water cooler without wading through conversations about The Handmaid’s Tale, The Crown, and Transparent. All high-budget original productions funded and published by new OTT services. Even established brands are premiering hot new shows online. CBS All Access started life as a catch-up TV service for the US broadcast network but is now the home of the latest incarnation of the studio’s most enduring franchise Star Trek.
And who knows what Disney’s putting together for its OTT service launching in 2019 but it’s likely to be the greatest competitor so far to Netflix if not an actual Netflix-killer.
So, in all this frenzied OTT activity, what about the poor telco with its “dumb pipe” of the early 2010s? After resolutely failing to take on cable and satellite pay TV 15 years ago, telcos and other IP-network owners are starting to define their role. And it’s not going head to head with the companies that really know entertainment.
Show Me the Money
We’re now entering the third phase of telco data monetization. It began with 3G and ADSL when revenue was driven by raw subscriber growth. After everyone had a connection, the second phase was characterized by the monetization of the data itself.
Marketing departments created tiers of data packs to sell at increasing retail prices, and then tempted subscribers to move them up the value chain by using more data and buying higher-priced packs. They’re now discovering that this second phase is a mug’s game that creates a race to the bottom in any truly competitive market, as rivals grab promiscuous subscribers by offering slightly more data for slightly less.
And so we enter a very welcome phase three: the monetization of experience. You see, content is nothing without experience. It is crucial to the HD, 4k, AR and VR video that will be flooding our pipes over the next few years from all these professional OTT services. Monetizing experience isn’t just about network quality of service. It starts with the retailing experience and runs through content discovery and technical QoS to customer support and billing. And who is best placed to deliver this experience to the end user? The beleaguered telco with its increasingly-smart “dumb pipe”. It turns out the OTTs need telcos after all for all the things they are poor at or have no control or credibility over as a pure OTT service.
So, to answer the original question, what’s next for content is a model where OTT services are bundled, retailed, billed and supported by a high-quality intelligent network provider to create a truly excellent end-to-end experience for the end user who is – after all – the one paying for all this.
A final observation: doesn’t the future end up looking quite like the old model where branded linear channels from HBO, Discovery, and MTV were bundled, retailed, billed and supported by the cable and satellite pay TV operators of old. It didn’t take us too long to get there.
