Huawei Technologies CFO Meng Wanzhou reacts as he leaves his home to attend a court hearing in Vancouver, Canada, August 10, 2021.
Jennifer Gauthier | Reuters
SHANGHAI — Huawei’s chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou said on Wednesday that applying 5G technology to business was more difficult than she expected.
Considered one of the expectations for 5G connectivity is that beyond faster cell phone connections for individual consumers, the technology could higher enable self-driving vehicles and factory automation.
Meng said that the challenges of bringing 5G to business have been underestimated and that it is totally different from previous generations of 2G, 3G or 4G. She said that only when 5G becomes a part of the ecosystem will large-scale operations be possible.
Meng spoke on the principal session of the Mobile World Congress in Shanghai on Wednesday, where she spoke extensively concerning the advantages of 5G for consumption and the economy.
The Chinese smartphone maker has sought to sell cloud services to specific industries reminiscent of mining and finance.
The corporate first released data on its cloud computing business in 2022, with revenue from the unit totaling 45.3 billion Chinese yuan ($6.25 billion) last yr.
“While you compare the MWC in Shanghai and the MWC in Barcelona [earlier this year]certainly one of the interesting elements is that most of the case studies are universal, global in nature,” said Winston Ma, writer of The Digital War: How China’s Tech Power Shapes the Way forward for AI, Blockchain and Cyberspace.
Speaking on the sidelines of MWC in Shanghai, he said the necessity for Chinese firms to compete could spur greater 5G adoption.
“So I believe Chinese firms are probably more ready, more willing to test recent 5G applications,” said Ma, who can also be an assistant professor of law at NYU.
“But in fact there will probably be barriers for any industry, especially for traditional industries which have their very own ecosystem.”
Bans on Huawei 5G
Huawei saw it last yr the most important annual decline in profits since 2011 as US sanctions hit its business and Covid-19 controls in China took a toll on the local economy.
In May 2019, the Trump administration placed Huawei on a blacklist that restricted US firms from selling technology to a Chinese company due to national security concerns. Huawei has denied that it poses such a threat.
The US, UK and Australia have also banned Huawei from operating on their 5G networks. Earlier this month, a senior EU official called on more members of the bloc to achieve this. Germany is among the many countries which have not yet restricted Huawei’s access to the local 5G network.
Meng, the daughter of Huawei’s founder, returned to China in 2021 after being detained in Canada for nearly three years on the request of the US. As well as to being Huawei’s chief financial officer, she can also be vice-chairman of Huawei’s board of directors and rotating chairperson.
— Arjun Kharpal and Ryan Browne of CNBC contributed to this report.