Huawei announced they will launch a complete set of commercial 5.5G network equipment in 2024 at the 5G Advanced Forum during MWC Shanghai 2023. 

Huawei's Director and President of ICT Products & Solutions Yang Chaobin who made the announcement said the company intends for this launch to mark the beginning of the 5.5G era for the ICT industry.

5G deployment progressed rapidly over the past four years and is already yielding significant financial gains. Today, there are more than 260 commercial 5G networks worldwide, serving over 1.2 billion users, and there are already 115 million gigabit F5G users. 

With service models and content continuously evolving, breakthroughs in technologies like glasses-free 3D are creating unprecedented immersive experiences for users.

However, these new services continue to require stronger 5G network capabilities. The industry has widely agreed that 5.5G will be a key milestone in 5G evolution, and that it is fast approaching.

Huawei proposed the concept of a "5.5G Era", based on an end-to-end solution that integrates comprehensive evolved technologies including 5.5G, F5.5G, and Net5.5G. This solution would protect operators' previous investment in 5G, while also improving network performance by 10 times. 

This 5.5G Era would feature 10 gigabit peak downlink speeds and gigabit peak uplink speeds to meet increasingly diverse service requirements. It would also refresh the industry vision by using new technologies like passive IoT to unlock a market of 100 billion IoT connections.

"With a clearly defined standardization schedule, the 5.5G Era is already poised for technological and commercial verification. In 2024, Huawei will launch a complete set of commercial 5.5G network equipment to be prepared for the commercial deployment of 5.5G. We look forward to working with all industry players to embark on the new journey towards the 5.5G era." said Chaobin Yang, President of ICT Products & Solutions, Huawei.

As an advocate for end-to-end 5.5G solutions, Huawei has been working with multiple players across the industry on R&D and verification of key 5.5G technologies. 

Significant progress has been made in this verification process, specifically for extremely large antenna array(ELAA) which underpins 10 gigabit downlink, flexible spectrum access which helps realize gigabit uplink, and passive IoT which can enable 100 billion IoT connections. 

50G PON is another key technology that can enable 10 gigabit speeds for F5.5G ultra-broadband networks, and is expected to be extensively used in homes, campuses, and productions in the future. Huawei has worked with over 30 operators around the world on technological verification and application pilots for these technologies.