How 5G innovation is mapping new course for business success in China

 

Participants at Huawei's exhibition stand during the Shanghai MWC 2O24 on June 28, 2024. [Patrick Vidija, Standard]

China's success in 5G connectivity is a result of ceaseless exploration, effective practices, and endless innovation.

China has built the world's largest and most advanced 5G networks, and by May this year, the number of 5G users in China exceeded 890 million, accounting for over 52 per cent of the global total.

Huawei’s President of Carrier Business James Chen said while primary innovation unleashes technology dividends, secondary innovation accelerates business success and pointed out that 5G is currently undergoing secondary innovation.

During his keynote address themed ‘Secondary 5G Innovation: Charting a New Course for Business Success’ during the MWC Shanghai 2024, Chen said that bolstered by this incredible progress, information and communications technologies like 5G are rapidly developing into an integral part of every sector and domain in China.

He said just as James Watt's improvements to the steam engine sparked the Industrial Revolution, secondary 5G innovation is expected to accelerate monetisation in three areas including user scenarios, network-cloud-intelligence synergy and ecosystem collaboration for a new stage of business success.

Scenario innovation

Chen said China has currently 150 million registered live-streaming users.

Attributing the move to 5G's high uplink speeds and priority-based network access, Chen said operators in the country can meet these users' requirements for videos that offer higher definition and zero stuttering.

Furthermore, more than 15 provincial operators in China have released live-streaming packages with guaranteed uplink speeds.

“Networks are becoming increasingly capable of supporting new features like user- and service-specific acceleration, deterministic experience, and visualised user perception, and these advances will extend live-streaming to more scenarios, user groups, and applications,” he said adding, “The value of user groups and scenarios will thus be reinvented, accelerating network monetisation through different metrics.” 

Integrated innovation

According to Chen, new calling and cloud phone services will serve as a gateway to more individual digital services, while Internet of Vehicles (IoV) and Internet of Video Things (IoVT) services create new opportunities for industry connectivity.

Innovation that integrates 5G, cloud, and AI will drive such services forward.

Mr Chen said AI-generated content (AIGC) is only the starting point for new calling to deliver unparalleled user experience.

“With the incubation of more consumer- and business-oriented high-value application scenarios, such as replacing traditional enterprise hotlines with AI assistants, New Calling will become even more engaging, convenient, and valuable,” he said.

He said cloud phones can already deliver experiences that almost match those of physical phones. Delivering 2K resolution and latency as low as 100ms, cloud phones are well on their way to offering higher-resolution displays and smoother interaction that are comparable to those found on a physical phone.

For IoV and IoVT, Mr Chen said RedCap technology can support connectivity services with optimal performance, at optimal cost.

“The RedCap ecosystem for chips, modules, and devices is already mature, meaning it allows operators to quickly establish industry benchmarks. With contiguous network coverage, alongside new capabilities like slicing and edge cloud computing, new high-value applications will be developed to support new IoT services for industries, such as smart manufacturing and industrial automation,” he said.

Collaborative innovation

Current video services, whether short videos, long videos, or video calls, typically deliver 540p or 720p resolution, meaning user experience has much room for improvement.

As part of its efforts to improve consumer experience and maximize leading network capabilities, Huawei advocated for ‘moving towards a full HD era’.

Huawei also called on players from across the industry to collaborate on breakthroughs in glasses-free 3D content, technology, and experience, so that everyone can benefit.

In terms of 5G business success, monetisation will rely heavily on reinventing the value of user groups and scenarios, services strategies will require network-cloud-intelligence synergy and collaboration on new types of video services will be key to boosting network traffic.

Chen said Huawei will go all out to support operators in propelling secondary 5G innovation and embracing commercial 5.5G to take 5G business success to the next level.