Chinese telecommunications equipment supplier Huawei has signed a cooperation agreement with Hungary's East-West Intermodal Logistics and British telecommunications operator Vodafone to build Europe's first smart railway hub with by a 5G private network from Huawei. As other countries hesitate to use Huawei equipment under pressure from the U.S., the agreement could enable Hungary to lead the way in 5G industrial solutions ahead of other countries. The project, which covers an area of 85 hectares in Fenyeslitke, will become Europe's largest intelligent multi-modal railway hub and Europe's first railway port to use a 5G private network for internal communication and networking of technical equipment. 5G technology will be used to remotely control fully automatic gantry cranes for intelligent loading and unloading. It will be able to handle 1 million standard containers per year after completion in the first quarter of next year.
Cai Lingyu, CEO of Huawei's Hungary subsidiary, said at the signing ceremony that this is the first time that Huawei has used its world-leading 5G technology to empower the traditional railway logistics industry in Europe and realize remote control of gantry cranes through 5G technology. With 5G technology's high transmission speed and low latency, company staff can complete their work remotely by sitting in the central control room with the help of high-definition video. “The use of 5G in railways or ports might still be a new practice in Europe, but is already been widely used in various scenarios in China. Therefore, the Chinese tech giant is the ideal partner for the Hungarian railway hub to achieve an intelligent transformation,” Xiang Ligang, Director General of the Beijing-based Information Consumption Alliance, told the Global Times. Xiang said he expected more European countries to follow suit. Huawei recently increased recruitments from Europe and the U.S. At the end of September, Founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei publicly stated that he would specifically look to recruit “outstanding talent” from all over the world, including French mathematician Laurent Lafforgue, the winner of the Fields Medal in mathematics, and a former BBC news executive, the Global Times reports.
