Coronavirus: 5G ‘certainly delayed’ in Europe and UK
5G, the coronavirus, rural, Huawei, this story has a heady mix of players, all of which are reducible to the fact that rural places may be disproportionately badly affected in terms of the roll out of IT. Something new to talk about there then…..
The rollout of 5G mobile networks in Europe will “certainly be delayed” by the coronavirus outbreak, Huawei says.
The Chinese company is one of the major manufacturers of essential equipment for 5G networks.
Huawei said continuing the 5G rollout was the best way to ensure connectivity during the crisis.
But senior executive Eric Xu also told reporters the delays could last until “the time when the pandemic is brought under control”.
Answering questions about its annual report, published on Tuesday, Huawei vice-president Victor Zhang said there would “definitely” be an impact but it would not be as significant in the UK as the rest of Europe.
The first priority was to ensure the existing network was reliable, as people were using it to work, entertain and learn from home, he said.
But given the demand for bandwidth and better coverage, “the quickest way is to use the 5G deployment”.
“We need to accelerate the network bandwidth… to make sure everyone can work and can entertain and can share information,” he said.
Mr Zhang pointed to rural areas in particular, where existing mobile broadband coverage “is not good enough” to support people working from home.