Qualcomm, China Unicom Enable 5G mmWave Zone at MWC Shanghai

MWC Shanghai 2021, a prestigious annual event in the global mobile communications industry, opened on February 23. The 5G mmWave Zone at MWC Shanghai, jointly hosted by China Unicom and GSMA and supported by Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. showcases extreme performance and rich applications enabled by 5G millimeter wave (mmWave).

The 5G mmWave Zone is another milestone that will help the mobile industry speed up commercialization of 5G mmWave in China to help unleash the full potential and speeds of 5G.

“mmWave is an important component of 5G, and 5G is an integral part of China’s national development. As the only operator partner of the Winter Olympic Games Beijing, China Unicom is dedicated to driving accelerated development of the industrial chain by conducting mmWave pilots and trials in Winter Olympics scenarios,” said Mai Yanzhou, vice president, China Unicom. “This collaboration with ecosystem leaders such as GSMA and Qualcomm Technologies to set up the 5G mmWave Zone has strongly shown remarkable results in the development of the 5G mmWave industrial chain and laid a solid foundation for accelerating 5G mmWave deployments in China.”

“mmWave bands provide very rich and continuous spectrum resources. The deployment of mmWave in 5G will better serve the applications with high requirements for large bandwidth and ultra-high speed,” said Wang Jianzhou, senior advisor, GSMA. “Thanks to the joint efforts of over 30 industry partners, including China Unicom and Qualcomm Technologies, who bring the immersive 5G mmWave experiences to the audience, and provide the opportunity to see a comprehensive 5G mmWave ecosystem as well as to experience a better future enabled by 5G.”

“5G innovation is at the core of digital transformation in which mmWave is an indispensable enabling technology. This joint effort with industry leaders such as China Unicom and GSMA to show 5G mmWave achievements and potential is a latest testament to Qualcomm Technologies’ investment in 5G mmWave technology R&D, commercialization and ecosystem development for over a decade,” said Frank Meng, chairman, Qualcomm China, Qualcomm International, Inc. “Qualcomm Technologies will continue to work with the expanding 5G ecosystem to fully unlock the potential of 5G with leading technologies such as mmWave and accelerate 5G expansion to benefit more consumers and industries with diverse 5G devices and use cases.”

The 5G mmWave Zone boasts network support by China Unicom and technical support by Qualcomm Technologies. The Zone shows various technical breakthroughs, including 5G mmWave, coming together in an integrated manner to build an ultra-large bandwidth wireless venue. With the theme of “5G mmWave Makes Snow Sports More Amazing”, the 5G mmWave Zone exhibits rich use cases that offer audiences, media broadcasters, event organizers and participants with exceptional watching experiences and complete service guarantee. The Zone is composed of six sections including Sports Experience, Event Presentation, Lightning-Fast Connectivity, Good Memories, Device Demo and Environment Building, and fully shows 5G mmWave applications and devices bolstered by over 20 industry’s leading companies, which reveals the new picture of today’s 5G mmWave ecosystem in China.

5G mmWave-enabled diverse use cases include athletic competition experience, 5G mixed reality smart ski resort, 8K video streaming, 5G 360-degree event service and free-view live events, 5G mmWave panoramic experience, etc. Powered by Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 5G Modem-RF Systems, 5G mmWave devices from multiple vendors cover a rich array of categories, including modules, smartphones, fixed wireless customer-premise equipment (CPEs), PCs, augmented reality (AR) and extended reality (XR) devices, livestreaming backpacks and robots, fully showing impressive technical capabilities of 5G mmWave in meeting the demand of high-performance applications.

5G mmWave is designed to help deliver new experiences and applications that exceed expectations to Chinese consumers and vertical users and create enormous opportunities for innovation and transformation in digital economy. GSMA estimates of the economic benefit arising from the use of 5G mmWave bands in China place the impact at approximately US$104 billion by 2034. In recent years, leaders such as China Unicom and Qualcomm Technologies have joined forces with the industry to conduct extensive tests and trials and driven industry readiness with devices first rolled out, which paved the way for the maturity of 5G mmWave technology and the ecosystem. The sustained investment across the industrial chain aims to accelerate commercial 5G mmWave deployments at scale in China, jointly draw a new picture of 5G innovation economy and empower new technological transformation and industrial upgrade.

The deployment of 5G mmWave is critical to unleashing the full potential of 5G and addressing the massive increase in mobile data demand. 5G mmWave allows leading operators such as China Unicom to take advantage of vast spectrum resources in high spectrum bands, enabling them to deliver the world’s fastest multi-gigabit cellular speeds and low latency connectivity.

5G mmWave is also a cost-effective way for mobile operators to increase the network capacity needed to meet the increasing demand for data in dense urban, fixed wireless access and enterprise environments. A landmark study from GSMA Intelligence shows savings up to approximately 30% in total cost of ownership for mobile operators compared to sole use of sub-6 GHz bands.

With 5G mmWave technology on the horizon that enables the intelligently connected future, marvelous 5G mmWave device and technology demonstrations are unfolding at Pavilion N4, Shanghai New International Expo Centre (SMOEC) — 5G mmWave Zone, which brings a technology feast of 5G innovations to industry partners and event participants.