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Chinese vendor predicts there will be 60 commercial 4.5G networks launched this year.
Huawei is sticking by its insistence that an interim step will be required on the road to the fifth generation of mobile services.
The Chinese vendor this week predicted that more than 60 commercial 4.5G networks will be deployed worldwide during the course of this year, adding that 2016 will be the start of a "golden five-year period" for the technology.
"4.5G is the natural evolution of 4G and necessary transition to the 5G," said Ryan Ding, Huawei’s president of products and solutions, at a press conference in Beijing, according to a statement from the company.
"It can effectively protect operators’ investments and enable them to provide faster services and better user experience on the basis of existing infrastructures," he added.
Huawei unveiled its vision for 4.5G just over a year ago, explaining that the technology will allow for speeds of up to 1 Gbps over mobile and latency of less than 10 milliseconds. While LTE, or 4G, is essentially designed for smartphones, 4.5G will better serve the Internet of Things space, supporting up to 100,000 connections per cell, the vendor said.
The concept of 4.5G has generated a mixed reaction from industry stakeholders in the intervening months, with some dismissing it as little more than a way for vendors to sell more equipment, while others have backed the idea of a stepping stone to 5G.
Huawei itself says 20 operators worldwide have demonstrated or tested its 4.5G solution since it first presented the the concept in late 2014.
"In 2016, which marks the beginning of the global large-scale commercialisation of 4.5G, Huawei remains committed to helping global operators tap into and create new business opportunities and broaden the market potential," said Ding.
