Huawei Tests 5G Downloads In China As Government Due To Issue Licenses

Chinese technology giant Huawei has tested the 5G download on its upcoming foldable phone, the Mate X, after the Chinese government announced that it will soon release 5G licenses nationwide, which is believed to largely benefit local telecom equipment vendors including Huawei and ZTE.

The download rate through a 5G network has exceeded 1Gbps on the latest Huawei handset. He Gang, head of Huawei's smartphone division, carried out the test at Huawei Shanghai Research Institute, a video shared by the company on Tuesday shows.

Huawei's Mate X, which supports the auto switch of 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G networks, could achieve downstream speed of 1Gbps and upstream speed of close to 100 Mpbs, according to the demo.

The test came a day after the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced that it will "soon grant 5G licenses for commercial use" on Monday.

The country's telecoms regulator did not unveil any details apart from the one-line announcement. The market generally expects that the three largest telecom operators of the country, China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom, will give out most their contracts for building up local 5G networks to the two local telecoms equipment giants, Huawei and ZTE.

Also: US-China tariffs hit Taiwanese tech industry

"We are looking forward to the commercialization of 5G networks and Mate X, which will allow users to experience good products and networks," Huawei's consumer business group head Richard Yu said on his Weibo account on Tuesday, commenting on the 5G demo. 

Huawei, which showcased its Mate X during MWC in Barcelona earlier this year, is scheduled to ship the foldable product this month as planned, the company told media in April, after Samsung postponed the shipment of Galaxy Fold due to serious problems with the screens.

Huawei's Mate X is equipped with the world's first 7nm 5G multi-mode modem chipset Balong 5000 which could support "unprecedented 5G download speeds", Huawei said in a press release.

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