Introduction
On September 21, 2022, Huawei published a white paper proposing measures to accelerate the arrival of the 5.5G era. Wang Tao, Huawei Executive Director, described 5.5G as a necessary step toward a more intelligent world. Many users who recently adopted 5G phones may wonder what 5.5G is and how it differs from 5G and 6G.
1. 5G: Faster Mobile Broadband
5G refers to the fifth generation of mobile communication technology. It is characterized by high data rates, low latency, and massive connectivity, and serves as the network infrastructure for human, machine, and device interconnection. The theoretical peak throughput of 5G can reach 20 Gbps, about 2.5 GB/s, more than ten times faster than typical 4G networks. For example, a 1 GB movie can be downloaded in about 4 seconds.
As of the end of July 2022, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology statistics show China had built and activated 1.968 million 5G base stations and had 475 million 5G mobile subscribers, a net increase of 120 million since the end of 2021. This represents the largest 5G network deployment in terms of scale.
Three years after the issuance of commercial 5G licenses in China, network deployment has continued. Deployed 5G base stations account for more than 60% of the global total, and users registered on 5G networks in China account for over 70% of global 5G subscribers. In addition, China has been conducting 5G commercial applications for three years, with wide adoption across industries. Current 5G integrated applications cover 40 major economic sectors and are deployed in more than 200 smart mines, over 1,000 smart factories, more than 180 smart grid projects, 89 ports, and over 600 tertiary hospitals, with more than 20,000 application cases reported.
2. 5.5G: A Transitional Phase for Immersive Experiences
5.5G is a transitional technology between 5G and 6G. Historically, the industry has named intermediate stages between full generation changes, such as 2.5G or 4.5G. Essentially, 5.5G means "5G Advanced" and represents the mid-cycle evolution of 5G.
Standards development in 3GPP advances through periodic Releases. Each full generation typically spans multiple Releases. The first phase of 5G standards covers Releases 15 to 17, while Releases 18 to 20 form the second phase, commonly referred to as 5.5G. After R20, 6G development is expected to emerge around 2028 to 2030. The 5.5G phase will therefore act as a multi-year bridge, likely lasting five years or more.
Deployment of 5.5G is expected to begin as early as 2025. As an evolutionary stage, 5.5G is not expected to bring disruptive changes but will focus on two main objectives: addressing and strengthening areas where 5G is insufficient, and exploring directions for 6G.
Building on ubiquitous gigabit experiences and massive connectivity, 5.5G will raise performance targets to ubiquitous 10-gigabit experiences and support hundreds of billions of connections. Specifically, 5.5G aims for peak downlink rates of 10 Gbps, peak uplink rates of 1 Gbps, millisecond-level latency, and low-cost connectivity for extremely large IoT deployments. Millisecond latency will enable real-time interactions and immersive "presence" experiences. Cloud VR, dual 8K VR live streaming, and competitive immersive services may become feasible, allowing viewers to experience events from "parallel venues." Higher uplink speeds will also better support industrial scenarios such as machine vision and massive broadband IoT with heavy uplink demands.
3. 6G: Toward Multisensory and Extreme Performance
Research on future networks, including 6G, is already underway. Liu Guangyi, Chief Expert at China Mobile, has said that future networks will offer more extreme performance and multidimensional capabilities, providing faster and more accurate connectivity. For example, 6G is expected to deliver ultra-wide bandwidth, ultra-low latency, and ultra-high reliability, plus broader global coverage. Transmission speeds could increase by 10 to 100 times compared with 5G, and communication latency could drop to 0.1 ms or lower.
Liu noted that the future "sensory internet" could transmit not only auditory and visual data but also haptic, olfactory, and gustatory information, enabling interconnected multi-sensory experiences. Interactive holography could allow holographic objects to interact directly like physical objects. Scenarios such as meeting distant relatives via holograms and perceiving body temperature, once fictional, may become feasible. Future networks are expected to accelerate digital twin development and deep intelligence across society, driving fundamental changes in industry and daily life. Applications from centimeter-level positioning and contactless healthcare to smarter factories and higher-level autonomous driving could all benefit.
Market projections cited in a white paper from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology indicate that by 2040, IoT devices may grow explosively into the hundreds of billions, with connected devices accounting for over 90% of endpoints. Immersive services based on XR and holographic devices could contribute more than half of monthly traffic, potentially creating a market characterized by hundreds of billions of connected terminals and trillions of gigabytes of monthly traffic.
