ZTE CEO Highlights 5G Progress

MWL: 5G is new. What sort of challenges do operators face in deploying and launching 5G?

I think the biggest challenge for 5G is the business model. We have already tested a lot of scenarios. But the 5G business model is not clear. So, all of our operators and partners should face the challenges together.
And there is also a challenge for the investor to balance the incoming revenue and budget. 
The third challenge for 5G is Opex. The higher Opex including, for example, the power consumption, the site fee, and the transport fee. All these are much more expensive. So we cannot use the traditional 4G mode to run in the 5G network. We should provide simplified integration solution for the operators. 
These are the challenges we are facing. So we should continually find a suitable solution for 5G with our partners.

MWL: And you mentioned solutions there, tell us a little bit about how ZTE is innovating－some of the technology perhaps that is making you stand out amongst some of your competitors. What are you doing that's innovative?

For ZTE, we have a strong R&D resource. We are the leader in the 5G non-standalone (NSA) and standalone (SA) tests. 
And after the 3GPP standard was issued, we were the pioneer to release 5G equipment at the same time. 
In addition, ZTE is the first world-class company to provide end-to-end 5G solution with real 5G terminals. So I think this is amazing part of that. 
Furthermore, Massive MIMO is the key technology for 5G. In the previous two years, ZTE has already deployed 10K sites of 4G using Massive MIMO. All these key technologies have been embedded in 5G solution to ensure our competitiveness.

MWL: You have done a lot of trials with operators around the world. Is there anything that you've learned from those trials of 5G that you will take to commercial launch?

I think that the first key thing is that we should move quickly from the lab test to the field test. Because you can try much more complex scenarios in the field test, for example, CBD mode with a higher building, the traffic mode with a large city, and also the coverage mode. So this should be accelerated. And this time, the operator can know how to really run a real 5G system.  

Secondly, the vendor should know the operator’s previous network from the 2G, 3G, 4G well. Because if you know the details of the operators' network, you can just provide an excellent solution suitable for the operators. This is much more important.

MWL: Do you think 5G will help vertical industries? What sorts of services and applications in the vertical space do you think 5G will enable?

This is the most exciting part of 5G for the vertical enterprises. We have already done a lot of trials with the industry, but I would actually say that the 5G vertical solution is not very clear in the business model. So my suggestion is that we should be involved with the industry together to find a better solution for 5G and integrate our 5G solution into the industry. 
The most important thing I would suggest is about the slicing network. Because we can provide a higher-quality and much more flexible solution for the enterprise by using slicing network with virtualization. It can give them a very flexible way to control their private network in 5G. 
I wish everybody and partners to join the industry scenario to work together.