Huawei, which has trumpeted its role in 5G, poured cold water on the technology, saying most consumers would not notice its benefits and operators would struggle to make money from it.

此前吹嘘自己在5G领域地位的华为(Huawei)给这项技术泼了冷水，称大多数消费者不会注意到该技术的好处，运营商将很难从中赚钱。

The reversal came as 5G has moved to the political agenda, with components ensnared in the US-China trade war and fears of Huawei’s supremacy in the technology prompting Donald Trump to block Broadcom’s acquisition of Qualcomm.

这一逆转发生之际，5G技术已进入政治议程，相关零部件卷入美中贸易战，由于担心华为在该技术领域的霸主地位，唐纳德.特朗普(Donald Trump)阻止了博通(Broadcom)对高通(Qualcomm)的收购。

Speaking at the group’s analyst event in Shenzhen yesterday, rotating chairman Eric Xu said that while 5G was faster and more reliable, consumers would find no “material difference between the two technologies”.

华为轮值首席执行官徐直军(Eric Xu)昨日在深圳召开的华为全球分析师大会上表示，虽然5G技术更快、更可靠，但消费者不会发现“5G与4G技术之间存在实质性差异”。

The technology has been seen as a necessity for the age of autonomous driving and connected devices making up the internet of things. But Mr Xu said that “even today we have the technology that can support autonomous driving”.

这项技术一直被视为自动驾驶时代以及构成物联网的互连设备的必要条件。但徐直军说，“即便在当下，我们也有能够支持自动驾驶的技术”。

Analysts said Huawei’s reversal echoed gloom among telecoms operators and kit manufacturers.

分析师们表示，华为的逆转呼应了电信运营商及设备制造商的悲观情绪。

“Pessimism about 5G has been growing behind the scenes in the mobile industry, but Huawei is the first large infrastructure company to state it explicitly,” Ben Stanton, analyst at Canalys, said. “The reality is that 5G will be incredibly expensive for operators to deploy, requiring tens of thousands of new base stations per country and the industry is yet to uncover a killer-use case for the 5G network.” Mr Xu said Huawei would continue to invest in the technology, saying failure to do so would cost it. “If you are not good at 5G, customers won’t buy from you, even for 4G.” The same applied to telecoms operators. “If one says, ‘I have 5G-enabled network’, the rest really have to launch 5G, even if it’s just for branding or marketing purposes.”

Canalys分析师本.斯坦顿(Ben Stanton)表示：“在幕后，移动行业对5G技术的悲观情绪不断发酵，但华为是第一家说出这一点的大型基础设施企业。“现实情况是，5G技术的部署对于运营商将会极其昂贵，需要在每个国家搭建数万个新基站，而该行业尚未发现5G网络的杀手级用例。”徐直军表示，华为将继续投资这项技术，称如果不这样做，就会付出代价。“如果你不擅长5G，客户连你的4G产品都就不会购买。”电信运营商也是如此。“如果有一家运营商说，‘我有支持5G的网络’，那么其它公司也必须推出5G网络，即便只是出于品牌运作或营销目的。”

Ericsson has projected that there will be 1bn 5G connections by 2023. It has been positive on prospects but has started to focus more on industrial benefits of early adoption.

爱立信(Ericsson)预计，到2023年将有10亿个5G连接。该公司对5G业务的前景持乐观态度，但已开始更多地关注早期采用该技术的产业效益。

Nokia said little more than that it believes it is better positioned than rivals in the technology.

诺基亚(Nokia)仅表示，它认为自己在该技术领域处于比竞争对手更有利的地位。

（来源：爱语吧）