Global Courant
Huawei Technologies Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou reacts as she leaves her home to attend a court hearing in Vancouver, Canada, August 10, 2021.
Jennifer Gauthier | Reuters
SHANGHAI — Huawei’s Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou said on Wednesday that adopting 5G technology in business has been more difficult than she expected.
One of the expectations for 5G connectivity is that the technology will not only enable faster mobile phone connections for individual consumers, but also enable self-driving vehicles and factory automation.
Meng said the challenges of bringing 5G to business have been underestimated and it is completely different from previous 2G, 3G or 4G generations. She said only when 5G becomes part of the ecosystem will it be possible to achieve operations at scale.
Meng spoke at a keynote session at the Shanghai Mobile World Congress on Wednesday, where she spoke broadly about the benefits of 5G for consumption and the economy.
The Chinese smartphone maker has been trying to sell cloud services to specific sectors such as mining and finance.
The company first released figures for its cloud computing business in 2022, saying revenue for the unit was 45.3 billion Chinese yuan ($6.25 billion) last year.
“If you compare MWC Shanghai and MWC Barcelona (earlier this year), an interesting aspect is that many of the case studies are universal and global,” said Winston Ma, author of “The Digital War: How China’s Tech Power Shapes the Future of AI , Blockchain and Cyberspace.”
Speaking on the sidelines of Shanghai MWC, he said the need for Chinese companies to compete could drive greater adoption of 5G.
“So I think the Chinese companies are probably more ready, more willing to test new 5G applications,” said Ma, who is also an adjunct professor of law at New York University.
“But of course there will be barriers for any industry, especially for the traditional industries. They have their existing ecosystem.”
Banned on Huawei 5G
Last year saw Huawei largest annual profit decline as US sanctions hit operations and China’s Covid-19 controls weighed on the local economy.
In May 2019, the Trump administration placed Huawei on a blacklist that banned US companies from selling technology to the Chinese company over national security concerns. Huawei has denied posing such a threat.
The US, UK and Australia have also banned Huawei from operating on their 5G networks. Earlier this month, a senior EU official called on more members of the bloc to do so. Germany is one of the countries that have not yet restricted Huawei from its local 5G network.
Meng, the daughter of Huawei’s founder, returned to China in 2021 – after being detained in Canada for nearly three years at the request of the US. In addition to being CFO of Huawei, she also serves as deputy chairman of Huawei’s board of directors and rotating chairman.
– CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal and Ryan Browne contributed to this report.
Correction: This story has been updated to show that Huawei saw its biggest annual profit drop last year.
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