Saudi media delegation visit Huawei Headquarters in China and given insider access to high-tech facilities

A delegation of Saudi media visited Huawei headquarter in Shenzhen City, China and toured the facilities of the company across two major cities in China. In order to give the journalists an understanding of the latest ICT solutions role in the digital transformation era and how ICT can assist the Saudi government in their efforts to build a knowledge-based economy, Huawei gave them insider access to their state-of-the-art laboratories and research centers as well as the opportunity to meet with top executives to discuss ICT position in driving the development of key vertical sectors and the state of the 5G networks applications and use cases in-depth.

The Saudi delegation was first invited to visit Huawei’s global headquarters in Shenzhen. There they toured a number of key Huawei facilities, including the Telecom Exhibition Center, the Executive Briefing center for the Enterprise Business Group, Huawei’s state-of-the-art laboratory and R&D Center, and Huawei Academy. The delegation was also invited to visit Huawei’s production lines, notably the one responsible for the P20 phone, which made history at its recent unveiling in Paris for being the world's first smartphone with a triple camera and unprecedented AI capabilities. At the conclusion of their tour, Joe Kelly, Vice President of International Media, met the journalists for an exclusive corporate presentation followed by an in-depth Q&A session to address their questions about Huawei’s latest solutions and delve more deeply into how Huawei supports digital transformation globally

In addition to their tour of Huawei facilities, the delegation was invited to visit China Telecom’s Customer Care Center and Exhibition Center. The general manager of Shenzhen Telecom personally met the journalists to discuss best practices for home broadband and Narrow-Band Internet of Things (NBIoT) applications in key sectors like transport, healthcare and educations.

Following their time in Shenzhen, the media stopped by Shanghai to visit Huawei’s state-of-the-art R&D center and a number of partner sites. There they gained further insight on how advanced ICT technologies can be applied to benefit a range of industries across vertical sectors.

Huawei’s 5G Vision

During their visit, the Saudi media were introduced to Huawei’s vision of an all-connected, all-intelligent 5G world. Huawei has developed into a passionate advocate for 5G networks. The company has invested US$600 million in 5G R&D since 2009 and has established 11 research centers on the field around the world, as well as building partnerships with over 30 telcos for 5G development. Huawei established the Wireless X Labs to explore the implications of 5G and has been pioneering groundbreaking use cases for the network.

Huawei is leading the push worldwide towards deploying 5G technologies. The 3GPP, a global association of telecommunications standard development organizations, recently released a complete set of stage 2 level specifications. In the 3GPP Release 15, the organization defined the 5G system architecture and set the industry standard for features and functionality for commercially operational 5G systems, enabling organizations to start manufacturing based on these regulations. Huawei was the first company to break through the bottleneck to 5G commercial use by releasing Balong 5G01, the world’s first 5G customer-premises equipment. This made Huawei the first company with capabilities in 5G chipsets, devices, and networks, and the first to offer an end-to-end 5G solution.

In China, the journalists were firsthand witnesses to how close Huawei has come to achieving its 5G vision.  As they visited Huawei’s facilities, the Saudis learned about some of the most innovative 5G uses. The delegation was presented case studies about home broadband, and learned how Narrow Band Internet of Things will benefit key vertical sectors ranging from smart homes and transport to healthcare and education.

The journalists learned about Huawei Wireless X Labs’ Digital Sky Initiative, which will deliver low airspace coverage, incubate drone application innovation, and enable a digital sky industry by providing reliable mobile connection covering an altitude up to 500m. This initiative could bring flying taxis and inspection drones to our skies by 2020. Already Huawei is cooperating with Ehang to launch the world’s first drone taxi. The two companies have successfully completed thousands of flight tests in Shanghai, some reaching as high as 300m.

Huawei also demonstrated how 5G will impact key industries such as transport, banking, education, healthcare and event Oil and Gas. In addition, the journalists learned how 5G will transform the entertainment industry. 5G’s high speed and low latency will open the complex and sophisticated world of Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR and AR). Soon spectators will be able to live concerts happening on the other side of the world as if they were standing in the crowd. Huawei Wireless X Labs is now trialing 5G VR live channel in event scenarios like sports and concerts to bring these experiences to consumers in the next few years.

Huawei also demonstrated to the media how the cloud will impact the growth of 5G. The shift towards All-Cloud is vital to the development of 5G, which necessitates high-bandwidth, large-connectivity, and low-latency user experience. Here too Huawei is leading the way: the company has developed the FusionCloud, which builds a distributed cloud deployment, a smart cloud platform, and a high-performance and reliable IT infrastructure to create a cloud that is scalable to the 5G era.

5G in the Middle East

Huawei invited the Saudi delegation out of a conviction that 5G is necessary for the Kingdom to progress in its digital transformation. The company aimed to demonstrate how 5G will accelerate the development of the Middle East. Already the development of 4.5G is making an impact in key regional initiatives: 4.5G Narrow Band-M2M is enabling the development of smart cities. The technology can provide smart intelligence within the city to optimize the daily use of energy (for example through remote control of public transport systems), guarantee better public safety (through video surveillance in streets) or leverage an efficient smart metering system. As we approach 2020, the growth of 5G-based enhanced mobile broadband networking (eMBB) and IoT applications will skyrocket, including VR/AR apps, industrial Internet, driverless technology, and the Internet of Vehicles. 5G will enable the widespread deployment of IoT.

“This is an exciting time in Saudi Arabia,” said Dennis Zhang, CEO of Huawei Saudi Arabia. “The Kingdom is already feeling the economic and social impact of digital transformation, and the imminent deployment of 5G promises to accelerate these benefits even further. At Huawei, our approach is to empower the governments and organizations of our partner countries to rapidly adopt and deploy new ICT technology to grow their business and improve their lives. We hope that our guests benefitted from their visit to Shenzhen and will return home with a clearer understanding of the ways in which ICT technology can help Saudi Arabia achieve the goals outlined in Saudi Vision 2030 and the National Transformation Plan 2020.”

The Saudi media’s visit to Shenzhen follows a number of Huawei initiatives to drive forward digitalization in the Kingdom. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) and Huawei have recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to enable the national cadre in ICT and promote innovation and entrepreneurship in the sector to push the growth and development of the kingdom, and achieve the goals of Saudi Vision 2030 and the National Transformation Plan 2020. The MoU also establishes an agreement between Huawei and MCIT to further develop its innovation centre in the Kingdom to include Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies designed to support Saudi entrepreneurship.

From 2018 to 2020, 1,500 Saudis will undergo training from Huawei in skills related to ICT across the board. Two of the programs, the Future Leaders Program and the National Industrial Training Institute Program, will end with full-time employment for the excellent   trainees. Huawei will also provide awareness programs to be delivered through CSIC visits as well as its innovative and effective ICT Skill Competition, which should reach an additional 5,000 students and trainees.  

In particular, the further joint developments to Huawei’s existing Customer Solution Integration and Innovation Experience Centre (CSIC) facility will focus on the development and utilization of AI and IoT technologies in enabling the Kingdom’s entrepreneurs. These investments will allow entrepreneurs to use these platforms to further pursue innovation, as well as to train themselves and their organizations for success as the digital transformation becomes more comprehensive.

In Past years, Huawei has also brought its global Seeds for the Future training program to Saudi Arabia three years ago in collaboration with the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) in order to develop the next generation of ICT talent. Huawei’s training center in Riyadh has graduated over 4,000 engineers since it was established in 2006, and more have taken part in educational initiatives at the Huawei Academy with the support of the Saudi Technical and Vocational Training Corporation (TVTC) and Yanbu Royal Commission. In addition, in 2017 Huawei again collaborated TVTC and CITC to launch the ICT Skill Competition in Saudi Arabia. The Competition brought together more than 10,285 students from 121 educational institutions across the Middle East, and six Saudi and several Saudi institutions students walked away from the event with awards.