cross pond high tech

The US ban on Chinese tech giant Huawei and its 5G technology has sparked a heated debate on the future of information flows and their control.

Until now, however, that debate has largely overlooked how Huawei arrived at its position of tech prowess.

The Five Eyes intelligence group (United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom) insist that Huawei 5G technology represents a huge intelligence risk.

Huawei flatly denies the accusation. Meanwhile, trillions of dollars in 5G revenue are at stake. Shutting down Huawei also has an extra benefit for the US — it temporarily halts Chinese progress in this extremely lucrative sector.

But how did Huawei get so far ahead in the first place? Well, according to a piece in Wired and carried by androidcentral, it all comes down to a theory crafted in 1948 and recently revived by a Turkish professor.

Amazon is using next-generation 5G wireless networks to help businesses download data from the cloud faster.

At Amazon Web Services’ annual re:Invent conference on Tuesday, AWS CEO Andy Jassy said the company is introducing a new service, called WaveLength, which puts technology from AWS “at the edge of the 5G network,” or closer to users’ devices. It has the potential to deliver single-digit millisecond latencies to users, according to Amazon.

At launch, Amazon is partnering with Verizon to incorporate WaveLength technology into parts of its wireless network. Amazon is also working with other global partners, such as Vodafone, KDDI and SK Telecom.

Lower latency is one of the big benefits that’s expected to arrive with 5G networks. This means it doesn’t take as long for devices to communicate with each other. For users, it results in fewer disruptions and shorter lag times when streaming videos, among other applications. 5G has the potential for many business-to-business applications, such as improving connectivity of IoT devices in manufacturing, self-driving, health care and other areas, in addition to consumer applications, such as faster streaming on phones.

“The connectivity and the speed is just two things,” Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg said on stage Tuesday at AWS’ re:Invent conference. “We can with 5G now bring the processing out to the edge because we have a virtualized network.”

With the partnership, AWS’ compute, storage, database and analytics tools are all “embedded” at the edge of 5G networks, Jassy said in an interview with CNBC’s Jon Fortt that aired Tuesday.

“That means now you only go from the device to the metro aggregation site, which is where the 5G tower is, where AWS is embedded there, and you get AWS,” Jassy said. “So it totally changes the response rates and the latency and what you can get done.”

Amazon is launching WaveLength at a time when excitement is ramping up around 5G networks. The technology is expected to be used more broadly by device makers, carriers and cable companies in 2020.

The German telecoms group and its partner, British startup Stratospheric Platforms, said that a remotely piloted aircraft flying at 14,000 metres (45,000 feet) had successfully connected with its terrestrial 4G network from an on-board antenna.

The airborne base station, which can cover an area up to 140 km (87 miles) across, handled voice and video calls, data downloads and web browsing from a smartphone user on the ground during trial flights this month.

“We won’t stop until everyone is connected,” Deutsche Telekom CEO Tim Hoettges told a video presentation on the project, which has been in development for the past five years.

“A stratospheric network can help reach areas that have been difficult to supply up to now.”

Hosting base stations in the stratosphere promises the fast reaction times that next-generation 5G networks will need to support innovations such as self-driving cars.

But, while aerial antennas offer a speed and cost advantage over satellites, keeping them aloft poses a design challenge.

Alphabet's GOOGL.O rival Loon venture uses high-altitude balloons to run wireless networks and Facebook FB.O grounded an experimental solar-powered internet drone two years ago after concluding it was not feasible.

Deutsche Telekom’s test flights were staged over the state of Bavaria in southern Gemrany using an adapted H3Grob 520 propeller plane because Stratospheric Platforms is still developing its own pilotless aircraft.

The UK startup says its lightweight “platform” will have a wingspan of 60 metres - as big as a Boeing 747 - but weigh only 3.5 tonnes and be able to stay aloft for nine days.

It will use an emission-free hydrogen fuel-cell system, which can generate far more power than solar cells. The on-board antenna, weighing 140 kg, will be capable of doing the job of 200 terrestrial towers.