People walk past a flagship store of Huawei in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province, Sept. 11, 2023. Chinese telecom giant Huawei held a product launch event on Monday in Shenzhen.(Photo: Xinhua)

Huawei unveiled the world's first comprehensive 5.5G product solution at an ongoing industry forum in Dubai, noting that product solutions, through innovations in broadband, multi-frequency, multi-antenna, intelligence and green technologies, aim to provide a tenfold increase in network capabilities.

Industry observers said the move shows that the Chinese tech giant's ambition to lead the industry continues to expand, as development of 5G has reached a critical point after four years of commercialization, and China's leading position in 5G deployment helps it to move forward.

The product solutions will improve network capabilities tenfold, help operators efficiently build 5.5G networks and smoothly evolve toward the 5.5G era, Cao Ming, president of Huawei's wireless network product line, said in a speech at the company's ongoing 14th Global Mobile Broadband Forum in Dubai on Thursday. 
 
5.5G represents a transitional phase between 5G and 6G, and it is a communication technology planned for the 2025-2030 period, in response to the continuous growth of 5G services and the acceleration of digitization and smart applications.

5G has been in commercialization for more than four years and is at a crucial stage of evolution. However, the path to 6G has encountered significant obstacles, primarily due to geopolitical issues and sanctions the US has put on Huawei, Ma Jihua, a veteran industry analyst, told the Global Times on Thursday.

Ma noted that these factors have made it challenging for the world to establish a universally accepted international standard for 6G, similar to what was achieved with 5G, which has slowed down global progress in 5G and path toward 6G.

As a frontrunner in the global 5G race, Huawei's continued push to 5.5G for industry reflects its resolve to advance and upgrade communication technologies, and China's leading capability in the 5G era can help empower its ambitions despite challenges, Ma noted.

China had built 3.055 million 5G base stations as of the end of July, accounting for 26.9 percent of the country's total mobile base stations, according to a report released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Monday.

On Thursday, China Mobile Chairman Yang Jie said the company had built the world's largest 5G network, with nearly 1.9 million 5G base stations in operation. 5G customers stand at 750 million, and the total number of connections exceeds 3.3 billion.

The progress far exceeds other major economies in the world. According to a report in the South China Morning Post, China is leaving the US far behind in the 5G connectivity race, as China built more 5G base stations in three months than the US did in two years.

The US built about 100,000 5G base stations between 2019 and 2021, the report said, citing the latest available industry estimate. By comparison, China had built 3 million by the end of June, latest government data showed.

Global Times