China Telecom and Huawei bringing 4K to millions

China's technology leader Huawei is cooperating with China Telecom to improve its 4K business.

4K is an ultra HD video format featuring about 4,000 pixels horizontally and four times the resolution of the standard HD format.

Zeng Xingyun, chief marketing officer of Huawei's fixed internet products sector, said the 4K technology requires more from networks, and the introduction of internet TVs has lead to challenges for standard operating procedures for telecom operators.

Miao Fengyuan, general manager of China Telecom's Yunnan branch, agreed. "This is a common challenge to the telecom industry, brought about by the 4K video business, which needs innovation in both its network technology and its business model," he said.

The China Telecom Yunnan branch and Huawei together launched a project in April to design and manage a network structure across Yunnan province that allows for the "best user experience" for 4K TV.

The China Telecom Yunnan branch has been paying more attention to 4K video services to remain competitive in the market, as the industry is rapidly developing and its traditional internet-based TV services are being challenged by emerging rivals.

"Our cooperative work with Huawei will be a milestone for the commercialized 4K business and a win-win all along the industry chain," Miao said.

In Guangdong province, China Telecom has also partnered up with Huawei, local radio and TV service providers and internet content providers to improve the "ecology" of 4K business.

The company initiated construction of a fiber optic network project in late 2014. It had nearly 20 million broadband users across the province by the end of May, including more than 10 million fiber optic users.

More than 4 million users' bandwidth has reached 100 Mbps or higher.

The new network serves more than 5 million internet TV users, including 1 million 4K TV program users.

The China Telecom Guangdong branch unveiled its 1 Gbps optic fiber product in January.

It will invest 12 billion yuan ($1.76 billion) over the next three years to improve its fiber optic network, said Zhong Ping, general manager of China Telecom Guangdong.

In three years, the company's fiber optic users will increase to at least 20 million and internet TV users to 12 million, including 10 million 4K TV users, said Zhong.

The current internet TV system includes more than 160 live TV channels and 100,000 hours of on-demand HD video content, along with other resources like music, games and educational content.

The newly established partnership will allow users to access even more content.

By the end of this year, there will be 20 additional HD TV channels and 20,000 hours of on-demand HD video, including 5,000 hours of 4K video.

The company and its partner Huawei have founded a lab to conduct research each sector in the 4K business, including video quality supervision, coding and decoding methods and set-top box standards.

China Telecom is also developing new applications based on 4K access.

China Telecom Guangdong and Huawei jointly unveiled a 4K-compatible set-top box on May 5. Using Hisilicon video chips developed by Huawei, the device not only enables 4K TV programs and videos, but also grants access to HD games, video chat and voice control.

"As an end-to-end supplier of network solutions, platforms, terminals and chips, Huawei will continue to improve its ability to offer the best video experience and highly efficient operating solutions," said Zhang Ping'an, head of Huawei's telecom software sector. "We will learn from the best commercial practices around the world to support China Telecom Guangdong."

Huawei currently has more than 3,000 R&D employees in the video sector, along with 28 joint innovation centers and 45 training centers.