Huawei’s Carrier BG President Li Peng spoke today at Huawei’s MWC Barcelona 2023 Day 0 Forum on how 5G was opening the door to an intelligent world, and how the leap to 5.5G would be a key milestone along this journey. Li emphasized that the industry had to work together to move faster towards an ultra-broadband, green, and intelligent world, and that Huawei’s GUIDE business blueprint could help lay the foundation for this important achievement.
The physical and digital worlds seem to be growing ever closer as the effects of digital and intelligent transformation become increasingly apparent in our workplaces, our homes, and our personal lives. Many carriers have responded to the increasing demand in these areas for higher-quality experiences and higher productivity, pushing the ICT industry forward.
Connectivity+ is key to prosperous 5G development
By the end of 2022, more than 230 5G networks had already been commercially deployed, supporting over one billion 5G users and a multitude of 5G devices, and 5G has driven rapid development of the ICT industry. In the consumer market, carriers have been innovating to extend “Connectivity+”. As 5G capabilities continue to improve, leading carriers in Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East have scrambled to develop different kinds of digital services. Some carriers have converged connectivity with local OTT services, which allows them to achieve shared success. These offerings bundle connectivity with digital services like social media, helping them grow into a one-stop digital service provider.
The home market has also become an area where carriers can generate more value as 5G and fiber penetration continues to grow. So, carriers are widening “Connectivity+” for better experiences, better services, and more efficient O&M. Premium home broadband services, like 5G FWA and 10G PON have expanded faster than expected, helping carriers in regions, including Europe and the Middle East increase ARPU by 30% to 60%.
General-purpose technologies like 5G, AI, and cloud computing are driving industrial digitalization and bringing new strategic opportunities. Enterprise customers need more offering portfolios, carriers need to reinforce “Connectivity+”. One Chinese carrier had combined connectivity with cloud, AI, security, and platform services to expand into new markets and grow its revenue from industrial digitalization by over 20% in 2022.
Moving forward, carriers will continue to improve their network capabilities, to provide more guaranteed experiences. So, carriers are making “Connectivity+” more open. Huawei has joined the CAMARA project led by the GSMA. Through this project, we aim to help carriers transform networks into service enablement platforms and monetize better customer experience.
Moving faster into an ultra-broadband, green, and intelligent world
Moving forward, the intelligent world will be deeply integrated with the physical world. Everything, including personal entertainment, work, and industrial production, will be intelligently connected. This means that networks will have to evolve from ubiquitous Gbps to ubiquitous 10Gbps, connectivity and sensing will need to be integrated, and the ICT industry will have to shift its focus from energy consumption to energy efficiency.
The evolution from 5G to 5.5G will be key to meeting these growing requirements.
Huawei is ready to work with its industry partners to deliver a ubiquitous 10Gbps experience with innovative wireless, optical, and IP technologies; explore use cases like vehicle-road collaboration and environment monitoring to integrate sensing and communication; and build a unified energy efficiency indicator system to drive green industry development.
In 2022, the ITU-T officially released NCIe, an indicator to measure the intensity of network carbon emissions, as a formal standard. Leading carriers in China and Europe have verified new multi-dimensional energy efficiency indicators on their live networks, and improved energy efficiency by 20% to 50%.
At the end of his speech, Li called upon the whole industry to follow the GUIDE business blueprint to accelerate 5G prosperity and make fast strides towards an ultra-broadband, green, and intelligent world together.
MWC Barcelona 2023 will run from February 27 to March 2 in Barcelona, Spain. Huawei will showcase its products and solutions at stand 1H50 in Fira Gran Via Hall 1. Together with global operators, industry professionals, and opinion leaders, we will dive into topics such as 5G business success, 5.5G opportunities, green development, digital transformation, and our vision of using the GUIDE business blueprint to lay the foundation for 5.5G and build on the success of 5G for even greater prosperity. For more information, please visit: https://carrier.huawei.com/en/events/mwc2023.
