Huawei officially launched its 5G multi-mode chipset ‘Balong 5000’, along with the first commercial 5G device powered by the company, the Huawei 5G CPE Pro. Together, these two new products are considered to have the world’s fastest wireless connections, as the Chinese state-owned company seeks to outpace its competitors in the 5G race.
The Balong 5000 chipset supports a broad range of 5G products in addition to smartphones, including home broadband devices, vehicle-mounted devices, and 5G modules. Adopting the new Wi-Fi 6 technology, the Huawei 5G CPE Pro delivers speeds of up to 4.8 gigabits per second (Gbps).
“The Balong 5000 will open up a whole new world to consumers as it will provide high-speed connections needed for pervasive intelligence. Huawei has an integrated set of capabilities across chips, devices, cloud services, and networks,” said the CEO of Huawei’s Consumer Business Group, Richard Yu.
With a small form factor and a high degree of integration, the chipset supports 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G on a single chip, and it is the first chipset to reach the industry’s benchmarks for peak 5G download speeds. At sub-6-GHz (low-frequency bands, the main spectrum used for 5G), it can achieve download speeds up to 4.6 Gbps.
Huawei’s 5G smartphones which are powered by Balong 5000 will be released at this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The chipset also supports both standalone and non-standalone network architectures for 5G. With non-standalone, the 5G network architecture is built on top of the legacy 4G LTE networks.
Powered by Balong 5000, the Huawei 5G CPE Pro supports both 4G and 5G wireless connections. With a 5G network, a 1GB high definition video clip can be downloaded within three seconds, and an 8K video can be streamed smoothly without a lag, which sets a new benchmark for home CPEs. In addition to homes, the Huawei 5G CPE Pro can also be used by small and medium-sized enterprises for a super-fast broadband access.
Huawei began its research and development in 5G in 2009, and is currently the industry’s only vendor which can provide end-to-end 5G systems. The tech firm has established 11 joint innovation centres for 5G solutions worldwide.
