The next milestone for the information and communication technology (ICT) industry on the path to an intelligent world is 5.5 generation (5.5G) technology, the evolution of fifth-generation (5G).

Through concerted efforts, the industry has made significant progress and is ready to make the leap to 5.5G, which will deliver 10 Gb/s experiences, support hundreds of billions of connections and help achieve native intelligence, says Huawei rotating chairperson Ken Hu.

“To push 5G to the next level, Huawei worked with carriers and industry partners to propose four features for 5.5G, the next evolution of 5G technology: 10 Gb/s downlink, 1 Gb/s uplink, support for 100-billion connections and native intelligence,” he says, noting that the industry needs to come together to define standards, prepare the spectrum and build out the ecosystem.

In line with this, Huawei executive director and ICT Infrastructure Managing Board chairperson David Wang calls on all industry players to prepare on all fronts to move faster towards the 5.5G era and eventually build a better, intelligent world together.

He says that, after two years of efforts across the industry to progress 5.5G, three things have become clear, including the standardisation of 5.5G, which has been initiated and is on track, making it more than just a vision.

He told delegates at Huawei’s thirteenth Global Mobile Broadband Forum 2022, hosted with its industry partners GSMA and GTI in Bangkok, in October, that the industry has made breakthroughs in key technologies for 5.5G, and ultralarge bandwidth and extremely large antenna array, or ELAA, can now deliver 10 Gb/s experience, and lastly, the industry has a clear vision for the Internet of Things (IoT) landscape.

He cited the three types of 5.5G-enabled IoT technologies supported by 5.5G, namely Narrow Band-IoT, Reduced Capability, or RedCap, and passive IoT, which are developing rapidly and will support numerous IoT connections.

“The communications industry is constantly evolving. 5.5G has been kicked into high gear. Looking ahead, our task is to tackle these five new areas, [namely] standards, spectrum, products, ecosystems and applications.”

Meanwhile, Hu says that there is more work to do to maximise the value of 5G.

“5G has grown faster than any previous generation of mobile technology. In just three years, we have seen solid progress in network deployment, consumer services, and industry applications. 5G is in the fast lane.”