At the Global Mobile Broadband Forum, SingTel and Huawei have announced plans to launch the Fifth Generation (5G) Joint Innovation Program which will serve as a research hub for the advancement of 5G mobile broadband technologies. Both parties shall also endeavor to set up a team to conduct the 5G trial which will deliver the near-zero-delay and near-zero-distance experience to SingTel’s customers.
 
It is estimated that by 2020, 6.5 billion people worldwide will use mobile networks for data communications and that 100 billion additional products and devices, such as vehicles, home appliances, and medical devices, will also be connected via mobile networks. The commercial operation of 5G telecom services is in turn expected to start globally by 2020 and is estimated to provide 1,000 times more capacity than current mobile broadband networks.
 
"SingTel Group is constantly seeking opportunities to advance the technologies that bring the best communications experience to our customers throughout the region. We are pleased to participate in this 5G Joint Innovation Program with Huawei to keep abreast and appreciate 5G technologies to ensure SingTel continue its technology leadership in the mobile communications domain as we move towards the 5G era,” said Tay Soo Meng, CTO, SingTel group.
 
"5G is the future of mobile networks. It will be the ultimate platform for a connected world bringing new innovations as well as creating new collaborations and new opportunities. The launch of this5G joint innovation program with the SingTel Group clearly shows that we are fully committed to its successful development. Both parties are extremely optimistic and excited about the future of 5G technologies and the benefits it will bring to customers," said Ryan Ding, President of Huawei Products and Solutions.
 
In this MBB Forum, Huawei introduces the first 128TRX Massive MIMO prototype in the industry. By providing higher resolution in angular domain, it supports 3D user location distribution, so that spectrum efficiency and system capacity can be greatly improved. Massive MIMO is considered as a key technology required for the evolution to 5G from 4G. Sparse Code Multiple Access (SCMA), a significant breakthrough technology, is also demonstrated by Huawei in the forum. Live test shows that SCMA can improve the number of connections by 300%, and decrease air interface latency by 7 times.
 
Singapore Telecommunications Limited, commonly abbreviated as SingTel, is a Singaporean telecommunications and multimedia company, with a combined mobile subscriber base of 525 million customers from its own operations and regional associates in 25 countries at the end of June 2014.
 
Huawei is the initial player in the global 5G telecommunications market. Earlier this year, the company was elected to join the board of the 5G Infrastructure Association aimed at materializing this next generation of communications network. The company has also previously announced global plans to invest a minimum of US$600 million in the research and innovation of 5G technologies by 2018.