Industry peers in Barcelona for technology summit

Huawei leads the way in critical communications

Hundreds of information and communications technology industry peers were in Barcelona for the third eLTE Industry Alliance Summit and 2015 Critical Communications World Exhibition, on May 18.

Global information and communication technology solutions provider Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, which hosted the summit, shared insights with delegates on the latest trends on global broadband trunking standards, recent developments and cooperation in the field.

The eLTE Indurtry Alliance welcomes its 16 new members. [Photo by Liu Jia/for China Daily]

The alliance, founded by Huawei in February last year, attracted 16 new members during the event.

The alliance, which has 72 members, will continue satisfying the network requirements of the industry through joint efforts.

"Let's join hands for a prosperous eLTE eco-system," said Leon He, president of Huawei West European Enterprise Business, during his keynote speech.

"We are committed to collaborating with industry partners to jointly accelerate Third Generation Partnership Project (collaboration between groups of telecommunications associations) standardization, promote frequency harmonization, and optimize end-to-end industry solutions".

New alliance members include the global communication technology partner Siemens CVC research and analysis firm IHS Technology and British network provider UK Broadband.

Calling for more joint efforts to build a healthy and mature eLTE system globally, He later says at a news conference: "It is just a start. We hope more global partners will join us."

He says the eLTE Industry Alliance aims to establish a mature industry chain by leveraging the complementary advantages of different partners while jointly exploring the eLTE market.

"By virtue of global cooperation, Huawei hopes to establish a larger eLTE ecological chain for innovation and resource integration in the future, realizing better connected industries," the company says.

Graham Currier, network performance director of UK Broadband, says: "Together, we aim to lead the development of the critical communication market in Europe."

He says he is looking forward to the widespread application of eLTE in Britain, as the technologies can help governments and enterprises maintain high operating efficiency and security.

London's Heathrow Airport would upgrade to eLTE solutions in 2016, he says.

Currier lists the potential benefits of eLTE at an airport, such as saving time, labor and energy costs by 20 percent, ensuring safe flight with accurate and timely data updates, and increasing flight punctuality.

Using broadband technologies, different from Wi-Fi, LTE networks can provide large-traffic broadband data services, as well as traditional voice trunking services.

4G-based eLTE has a much larger coverage area and is much more competitive in terms of anti-interference capability and mobility.

It has been applied to smart traffic and transport, smart energies, smart intelligent factories and transportation for Industry 4.0, which is a term originates from a project in the high-tech strategy of the German government, which promotes the computerization of the manufacturing industry, and many other fields.

Triggered by the development of a better-connected world, the demand for eLTE solutions in different fields is still rising sharply, especially with the increasing world population and global-wide urbanization.

"The demand on public safety and first responder resources is rising to meet the needs of a growing urban populace," says Richard W. Chase, chairman of Global Security Industry Alliance.

He says increasing urbanization and city populations has resulted in the emergence of smart technologies and improved ways to analyze and share real-time data.

Chase emphasizes that broadband technology application in critical communication plays a significant role in building safe cities smarter.

Thomas Lynch, director for IHS Critical Communications Group, says: "Broadband technology application in critical communication has entered the 'fast lane' of development with rapid growth in public safety area, followed by public service and transportation, as well as industrial areas."

IHS expects the LTE market for critical communications will reach more than $2 billion (1.8 billion euros) by 2018.

At the three-day exhibition in Barcelona, Huawei and its partners displayed the best practice cases of eLTE solutions across a variety of industries, including the applications for airports, railways and subways.

By the end of the first quarter of this year, Huawei had signed 111 eLTE network contracts and set up 53 commercial eLTE networks, according to company data.

It has two regional headquarters in Europe and its businesses cover 33 European countries. It also shows strong research and development capability in Europe.

Aiming at enhancing its overall solution capabilities through continuous investment in research and development, the company has set up 18 R&D sites in eight European countries.

Huawei is also cooperating with more than 160 European technical scholars and 120 academic institutions.

This month during the European Business Summit in Brussels, the company announced it will establish the European Research Institution in the Belgian university town of Leuven.

To manage and coordinate the company's 18 R&D sites, the institution will serve as Huawei's research and innovation hub in Europe.

It will mainly focus on promoting the development of Industry 4.0, where everything is connected, and the development of a 5G standard for Internet of Things connectivity, according to Huawei.

Huawei has joined in a 5G public-private partnership, launched in December 2013 by the European Commission.

Nathalie Vandystadt, a European Commission spokeswoman, says the commission is working toward a common declaration on 5G cooperation with China.

"We hope this will be finalized in the near future," Vandystadt says.

"A final text is likely to be agreed only after the EU-China Summit (scheduled to take place in June)."

In March, the 5G PPP presented Europe's vision of 5G technologies and infrastructure.

Vandystadt says a global vision on 5G will pave the way for discussions on standards in 2016, notably in key standardization bodies such as the Third Generation Partnership Project, International Telecommunication Union and Open Networking Foundation.

Nearly 20 billion euros is already earmarked for ICT spending across European regions through the EU Regional funds.

"This June, the EU Urban Agenda will be launched, allocating a further 16 billion euros to urban development projects," she says.