Both parties will promote global standardization for 5G technology
The European Union and China have signed an agreement for the future development of “5G” networks. The deal was inked during the EU-China High Level Economic and Trade Dialogue in Beijing.
Under the terms of the agreement, the EU and China said they will strengthen cooperation to reach a global understanding – by the end of the year – on the concept, basic functionalities, key technologies and timeframe for 5G technology. Both parties also will explore possibilities in cooperating and implementing joint research actions in the area of 5G and to facilitate bilateral participation of enterprises in 5G research projects in China and the EU.
The agreement also stipulates that both parties will work to promote global standardization for 5G, in support of ongoing standardization work in relevant organizations such as the 3rd Generation Partnership Project and the International Telecommunication Union.
The EU and China will also cooperate in facilitating the identification of the most promising radio frequency bands to meet the new spectrum requirements for 5G technology. Both parties are committed to reciprocity and openness in terms of access to 5G networks research funding and market access, as well as in membership of Chinese and EU 5G associations.
South Korea and Japan have signed similar agreements with the European Union in recent months.
The European Commission is investing 700 million euros ($784 million) through the Horizon 2020 initiative to support research and innovation in 5G technology.
Telefonica signs data center agreement with China Unicom
Spanish telecom operator Telefónica and Chinese state-owned telecom operator China Unicom have signed an agreement through which they will share their international data center capabilities as a first step toward broader and larger-scale cloud cooperation. Initially the agreement will focus on three major data centers from each operator with the inclusion of additional facilities over time.
The cooperation across the cloud computing service segment will include, among others, infrastructure-as-a-service with virtual servers and multicloud solutions.
China Unicom’s customers will be able to benefit from Telefónica’s three data centers located in Brazil (Sao Paulo), the U.S. (Miami) and Spain (Madrid). Also, the European telco will be able to leverage the cloud capabilities of China Unicom’s data centers located across China in Langfang, Shanghai and Chongqing to enable end-to-end service delivery for its multinational customers.
The Spanish telco has a presence in 21 countries and a customer base of approximately 329 million accesses around the world. Telefónica has a strong business presence in Spain, Europe and Latin America, the latter region is where the company has been focusing most of its growth strategy.
China Unicom provides a full range of telecom services in China, including mobile broadband, fixed broadband, GSM, fixed-line local access, ICT, data communications and other related value-added services. The Asian telco had approximately 436 million subscribers at the end of August.
