Chinese infrastructure vendor Huawei and Russian operator MegaFon have announced a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to deliver trial 5G network services at the Fifa World Cup 2018, to be held in 11 Russian cities.

According to the two partners, the trials will be the first in Russia, and the first time an operator in the country will be involved in developing a communications standard. They said this will give MegaFon the opportunity to influence the standard based on the specific technical characteristics of the Russian telecoms market.

Huawei will provide its mobile technologies including SCMA (sparse code multiple access), full duplex and the cloud base-station for the 5G network, as well as conducting 5G terminal testing.

“The communication boundaries between human and machines are bound to be broken by 5G,” Ryan Ding, President of Huawei Products and Solutions, said.

“Huawei has made great progress in the development of 5G. The 2018 Fifa World Cup provides a unique platform in wireless history to demonstrate Huawei’s leadership in 5G development. As always, I am delighted we once again join hands with MegaFon, the most promising and innovative carrier in Russia. With the help of MegaFon, we are confident of turning science-fiction-like service into 5G reality for citizens in Russia and soccer fans around the world, two years ahead of the industry’s estimated 5G introduction date of 2020!”

“MegaFon is a mobile data leader in Russia. Fast internet speed and high quality services are our key advantages and we are aim to maintain this valuable quality for our clients,” Mikhail Dubin, Executive Director of Consumer Business at MegaFon said.

Continuing with a very specific claim, he then went on to say: “MegaFon was the first mobile operator in the world to offer LTE to guests and participants of the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games. MegaFon’s strategic priority is technological leadership, so we will keep developing and rolling out new technologies to provide the best quality for our customers. Thanks to this memorandum, Russia will be among pioneers to enjoy next generation mobile telecommunications. It is particularly important that this happens on the eve of the Fifa World Cup 2018.”

So far in terms of 5G availability, 2020 has been set as the availability timeline. It is interesting then to see MegaFon and Huawei now attempting to rush ahead of this date. Remains to be seen whether others will jump on the bandwagon too, or hold their horses until the widely accepted date. After all, many operators are not keen on rushing in the next generation as they would like to see some more return of investment from 4G first. Also, almost every presentation, talk and event focused on 5G still includes the notion that no one even yet knows what it will be.