Huawei has announced a partnership with UK-based operator BT to conduct joint research into potential new 5G applications.
The companies will work at the BT Labs in Ipswich and other locations in the UK to explore aspects of 5G including future network architecture, a new air interface between devices and base stations, network slicing to proportion resources for specific services, 5G IoT applications and security technologies.
The partners said they hope that the research will drive the development and industry-wide standardization of 5G technologies.
“[Working with BT] we can explore the potential of 5G networks and analyze how this vital technology can best be delivered,” Huawei rotating CEO Ken Hu said.
“The partnership also demonstrates Huawei’s continued commitment to partnering with world-leading business and academic organizations in the UK to further research and development. We have operated in the UK for 15 years and we look forward to continuing to help build a better connected UK in partnership with BT.”
Huawei and BT have been collaborating on telecommunications R&D for 11 years. Most recently, the companies announced breakthroughs including a 3Tbps data transfer over BT's core network, as well as research into 40Gbps speeds on the Openreach access network.