HUAWEI PIONEERS THE FUTURE OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS WITH 5G-A AT MWC SHANGHAI 2024

At MWC Shanghai 2024, Huawei unveiled its groundbreaking vision for the future of telecommunications, marking the official launch of the 5G-A Pioneers Program. This initiative promises to revolutionise the industry with 5G-A technology and AI integration, significantly enhancing network capabilities and user experiences.?

5G-A Transformative Capabilities

In the rapidly evolving world of telecommunications, 5G-A and AI foundation models are revolutionising industries and consumer experiences. These cutting-edge technologies accelerate societal upgrades, transforming how industries produce and consumers engage with products and services. Countries like China, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia are leading this technological renaissance, with cities like Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Hangzhou at the forefront of 5G-A deployment.

5G-A significantly boosts capabilities and promises a better user experience. One of its key advancements is its ability to guarantee a deterministic user experience, ensuring consistent and reliable service. This enables people to embrace smart lifestyles, including interacting with machines in a multimodal way while enabling machines to interact with each other. Whether transitioning from HD voice to real-time AI interaction, the leap from HD to panoramic 3D live streaming, or evolving from basic PLC to sophisticated motion control in industrial networks, 5G-A delivers a remarkable 10-fold increase in network capabilities.

?Moreover, 5G-A networks are expanding their functions and connections, significantly accelerating the development of the low-altitude economy. Additionally, 5G-A introduces passive IoT, which employs passive tags and sensors to enable communication between devices without requiring built-in power supplies. This cost-effective and scalable innovation is set to boost the number of industrial IoT connections from 10 billion to 100 billion, connecting everything from clothes to keys.

5G-A Industry Development Trends

The global 5G-A industry is witnessing several transformative trends, with 2024 being a milestone year for 5G-A commercialisation and AI development. Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) is pushing network capabilities to deliver up to 10 Gbps, heralding a new era of user experience and monetisation. Ultra-Reliable and Low-Latency Communications (URLLC) are set to meet the stringent requirements of industrial production networks with just 4 ms latency and 99.999% reliability. While massive Machine-Type Communications (mMTC), enable IoT upgrades across all scenarios, driving various industries' digital and intelligent transformation.

China is leading the world in 5G-A deployment, with Shanghai boasting the world’s first commercial 5G-A network, providing extensive coverage with more than 1,000 sites. Shanghai aims to become a global dual-10G city by 2026. Hangzhou has been transformed into a demonstration city for 5G-A commercial use, with plans to expand to 300 cities by the end of the year. The Middle East is also making significant strides. The UAE has developed a strategic plan focused on high standards, user experience optimisation, and large-scale deployment to ensure widespread benefits from high-speed network services. Aligned with its Vision 2030, which puts the digital economy at the core of the national strategic development plan, Saudi Arabia has actively deployed 5G, covering 90% of its population, including remote areas, with plans to build a 10 Gbps society.

For 5G-A to realise its full potential, several conditions must be met. The technology must be verified and ready for deployment, as confirmed by over 30 global operators. Operators, including China Mobile, China Unicom, China Telecom, du UAE, e& UAE, stc KSA, and Zain KSA, have already announced their 5G-A commercial plans. Currently, about 20 models of mobile phones around the world support 5G-A. Continuous technological innovation, experience upgrades, and ecosystem improvement through collaboration are essential to accelerating 5G-A development and transitioning to a more diversified, convenient, and smarter life, paving the way for a future where intelligent technologies revolutionise every aspect of our daily lives.

Huawei's Vision for 5G-A

At MWC Shanghai 2024, Huawei unveiled its 5G-A Pioneers Program. David Wang, Huawei's Executive Director of the Board and Chairman of the ICT Infrastructure Managing Board, emphasised 5G-A’s transformative potential. "5G-A will be the path forward," Wang declared. "It creates new business opportunities by expanding business boundaries. As we look towards 2030, the industry must ramp up efforts to reinforce 5G-A technologies and support the healthy development of 5G. This is how we will ensure a prosperous industry and make the world a better place."

Wang's words resonated deeply with the audience, setting the stage for the official launch of the 5G-A Pioneers Program. This initiative, Wang explained, is designed to maximise the value of advanced 5G-A capabilities and promote further industry advancements. The six consensuses reached between Huawei and its operator partners are central to this program. These consensuses will maximise the value of advanced 5G-A capabilities, promote 5G-A development, and further advance the industry by promoting Pioneer Operators, Pioneer Cities, Business Model Upgrade, High-quality Networks, Service Innovation, and Thriving Ecosystems.

Wang highlighted three seismic changes set to revolutionise the mobile landscape in this new era. First, human-computer interaction will shift from touch-based to multimodal, incorporating natural language, gestures, and emotions for a seamless, on-demand experience. Second, content generation will be transformed, moving from search-based to AI-generated, offering comprehensive, real-time services tailored to individual needs. Third, mobile devices will evolve from smartphones into AI terminal assistants, becoming gateways to a seamless AI experience. The mobile AI era promises to revitalise society and create immense opportunities for the mobile industry. Wang highlighted the explosive growth in mobile data traffic over the past decade, outpacing Moore's Law. As new forms of interaction emerge, generative content will become the primary method of information acquisition, driving interaction efficiency and content volume to new heights.?

Intelligent connected vehicles (IoV) will be at the forefront of this transformation, reshaping driving experiences with enhanced safety, ease, and enjoyment. Intelligent cockpits, gigabit networks, and advanced applications will turn vehicles into mobile third spaces suitable for leisure and work. The disruption of traditional driving systems, with real-time data enhancing model accuracy and stability, will further showcase the value of connectivity. The Internet of Everything (IoE) will expand significantly, extending network connections from humans to digital entities. This will create billions of new connected AI assistants and workers, integrating AI into every aspect of life. Integrating AI will enhance productivity and efficiency across industries, from AI companions in personal devices to AI brains in smart factories.

Wang emphasised that the mobile AI era requires close industry collaboration. To fully realise this potential, two key areas must be addressed: Networks for AI and AI for Networks. Networks must be leveraged to fuel AI development, laying a solid foundation for future services. Simultaneously, AI must be harnessed to empower networks, enhancing operational efficiency and productivity. This leap fulfils the vision of 5G and shifts operators from traffic monetisation to experience monetisation, reaping the dividends of technological innovation.

Bringing AI to Networks

Also speaking at MWC Shanghai 2024, Eric Zhao, Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Huawei Wireless Solution, shared Huawei’s ambitious plan to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into networks. Reflecting on the journey that began three years ago, Zhao highlighted how the telecom sector has seen 5G-A evolve from a visionary concept to a commercial reality. The centrepiece of this vision is the creation of an ecosystem powered by the RAN Intelligent Agent. Collaborating closely with operators, Huawei seeks to deploy this technology across 1,000 site engineers and 10,000 sites in key cities like Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Bangkok, Jinan, and Shenzhen within the next six months.

As 2024 ushers in the first year of commercial 5G-A, it has already demonstrated impressive advancements in network performance, business applications, and device innovations. Yet, with these advancements come new challenges—complex operations and maintenance (O&M), differentiated network characteristics, and the demand for diverse, experience-driven operations. To address these challenges, Huawei proposed an innovative solution: integrating AI into networks through the RAN Intelligent Agent. This intelligent agent is designed to transform network O&M, enhance user experiences, and streamline services. By leveraging AI, the RAN Intelligent Agent offers role-based chatbots and scenario-based solution automation, significantly boosting network productivity.?

Zhao, stressing the transformation narrative begins with reshaping O&M, introduced Huawei’s field maintenance engineer copilot, an AI-based assistant that autonomously generates solution policies. This cutting-edge copilot has already showcased its capabilities by handling an optical path fault with tenfold efficiency compared to traditional methods. Advancements in AI-driven O&M simplify processes and drastically improve operational efficiency. He also highlighted how the RAN Intelligent Agent enhances user experiences. Evaluating network resources in real time allows operators to provision new services promptly and ensure consistent service quality. A prime example is the 5G-A live streaming assurance package, which offers deterministic uplink speeds essential for applications like agricultural live streaming. For example, this innovative package enables fruit farmers to connect with customers seamlessly, exemplifying how operators can leverage AI to create new business models and accelerate monetisation.

Embracing Open Gateways

Undoubtedly, 2024 marks the start of a new era of mobile AI empowered by the commercial launch of 5G-A and rapid advances in AI. According to Dr Philip Song, Chief Marketing Officer of Huawei Carrier Business Group, significant changes are on the horizon for mobile terminals, content production, and interaction patterns. Diversified capabilities will be demanded from 5G-A networks, naturally pushing carriers towards experience-oriented operations. By integrating AI, these networks will be more capable of providing differentiated capabilities on demand.

Open Gateway defines unified standards, billing modes, and a global ecosystem within an interoperable framework. Dr Song emphasised that this will enable carriers to pursue experience-driven operations, transforming how carriers and third-party platforms monetise their services. The practical examples shared during the summit further underscored Huawei's commitment to Open Gateway. For example, the service appointment API for mobile live-streaming ensures guaranteed experiences for live-streamers according to their requirements. Another feature insurance companies favour is the New Calling API, which integrates HD video, interactive data, content sharing, and AR marking into loss assessment, reducing the process from two hours to just ten minutes. This translates into differentiation and significant cost savings for insurance companies, with revenue growth for carriers.

A Unified Vision for the Future

Huawei's vision for the future of telecommunications is clear: creating a connected world where intelligent services transform lives, industries, and societies. Initiatives, from integrating AI into networks to launching the 5G-A Pioneers Program and advancing 5.5G, showcase Huawei's commitment to leading the charge. As industry leaders and global operators collaborate, the promise of a smarter, more connected world becomes increasingly tangible, driving us toward an intelligent future faster. The journey towards 5G-A and the mobile AI era is not just about technological advancements but also about forging new business paradigms and seizing unprecedented opportunities.

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