The frequently belittled Chinese tech company Huawei may just surprise techies and take centre stage in 2020 when it makes available 5G technology. The hint of being on the forefront of technological advancement from the Chinese tech giant comes even if 4G has barely landed.

Tony Wen, Huawei head of 5g technology development, said fibre broadband connection speeds from the next-gen mobile network with possible download speeds of 100Mbps is within sight in the next 7 years.

Mr Wen said Huawei has 200 people working on the 5G project and it allocated a specified amount for the research and development of 5G technology.

South Korean tech giant Samsung has about the same timetable of a commercial roll-out of a 5G technology by 2020.

But before 5G arrives, Huawei is conducting a trial run to test the speed of its 4G technology on the high-speed MagLev train in Shanghai. The Chinese tech firm deployed an LTR network on the train which travels from the centre of the Shanghai district to the international airport. The train achieved a speed of up to 431 km per hour throughout the length of its 31-kilometre track.

Huawei is providing equipment to 85 networks that have begun moving toward high-speed long term evolution or 4G networks.

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