Huawei Hosts Global Launch of 5G-A Pioneers Program and Unveils AI-led Network Plan at MWC Shanghai 2024
At MWC Shanghai 2024, Huawei showcased significant advancements in 5G technology and network intelligence, hosting the Global Launch of the 5G-A Pioneers Program and unveiling plans to integrate AI into networks. These initiatives aim to propel the high-quality development of 5G-Advanced (5G-A) networks and capitalize on opportunities in the emerging intelligent world.
The 5G-A Pioneers Program event, themed "Driving Shared Success with 5G-A," brought together leading 5G operators from around the globe, including China’s "big three," HKT, du, and Oman Telecommunications. This gathering marks a pivotal milestone for the 5G industry as 2024 is set to be the inaugural year for commercial 5G-A deployment, following the official freezing of the 3GPP Release-18 standards on June 28, 2024.
David Wang, Huawei's Executive Director of the Board and Chairman of the ICT Infrastructure Managing Board, delivered a keynote speech titled "5G-A: Paving the Way for Shared Success." He emphasized the transformative potential of 5G-A, stating, "5G-A will be the path forward. It will protect vested investment while creating new business opportunities by expanding business boundaries. As we look towards 2030, the industry must reinforce 5G-A technologies and support the healthy development of 5G."
Huawei and its operator partners jointly announced the 5G-A Pioneers Program and reached six specific consensuses. These focus on promoting Pioneer Operators, Pioneer Cities, Business Model Upgrade, High-quality Networks, Service Innovation, and Thriving Ecosystems. The aim is to maximize the value of advanced 5G-A capabilities and further propel the industry.
Leveraging AI to Elevate Network Productivity
In a separate keynote at the 5G-A & AI Roundtable, Eric Zhao, Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Huawei Wireless Solution, unveiled the company's plan to integrate AI into networks. This initiative aims to build an ecosystem of RAN Intelligent Agent in collaboration with operators to enhance network productivity. The first phase will cover 1,000 site engineers and 10,000 sites across Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Bangkok, Jinan, and Shenzhen within six months. The RAN Intelligent Agent is designed to reshape network operations and maintenance (O&M), experience, and services. It provides copilots that support role-based chatbots and agents for scenario-based solution automation. This AI integration is expected to address growing challenges related to complicated O&M, differentiated network characteristics, and diverse experience-driven operations.
"Our goal is to bring AI to networks. To achieve this, we will shift from a solution provider to a co-builder of intelligent networks. We believe that the co-growth of RAN Intelligent Agent and networks will create more extensive business value, transform networks more rapidly, and lead our industry into a new era of intelligence," Zhao concluded.
MWC Shanghai 2024, held from June 26 to June 28 at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre (SNIEC), features Huawei's latest products and solutions at stands E10 and E50 in Hall N1. The year 2024 is poised to be transformative for networks, with synergies across networks, cloud, and intelligence driving pervasive intelligent applications and increasingly diverse user experiences. Huawei, along with global operators, industry professionals, and opinion leaders, will explore topics such as amplifying 5G's success in the 5G-A era and tapping into operator revenue growth potential to accelerate the realization of an intelligent world.
