Every year, Mobile World Congress Shanghai (MWC Shanghai) can be called the vane of the development of the mobile communications industry.
At this year's conference, there are two biggest hot spots: one is 5G-A, in the case of the rapid development of 5G-A, 5G-A, which "surpasses 5G", has become the focus of everyone's attention; The other is AI, which has also become a hot topic for exhibitors in the context of generative artificial intelligence.
More importantly, 5G-A and AI, the two biggest hotspots at the moment, collided together, creating a new era of mobile AI, opening up infinite possibilities for the communications industry and thousands of industries.
01
AI and 5G-A collide to create a new world of "five intelligent connections".
Wang Tao, Executive Director of the Board of Directors and Chairman of the ICT Infrastructure Business Management Board, said that in 2024, the first year of 5G-A commercialization and the first year of AI onboarding, the first year of 5G-A commercialization will usher in the "mobile AI era" and make intelligent services ubiquitous.
As we all know, from 5G to 5G-A, the network will be able to bring 10 times the ability of downlink 10 Gigabit, uplink Gigabit, and 100 billion connections, thus expanding the connection scenarios to the "five connections": connecting people, families, things, vehicles, and industries. When AI collides with 5G-A, it will make the "five connections" jump to a more in-depth "five intelligent connections". Cao Ming, President of Huawei's Wireless Network Product Line, believes that the five-link upgrade has given rise to a large number of new scenarios, new applications, and new models, expanding the mobile industry space.
Taking Lianren as an example, in the past, the production of content mainly relied on users, but the development of AIGC will gradually shift content production to AI-based production. Relevant data shows that in 2026, AIGC will account for 30% of short videos. Sora can generate 60s 1080p content with one click, and the author has also tested Kuaishou's Wensheng video's Keling large model, and the generated video content is also of high quality. Obviously, the addition of AIGC will greatly increase the order of magnitude of content, which in turn will put forward higher requirements for network bandwidth and capacity.
The combination of 5G-A and AI will bring changes in content production, interaction methods, and mobile terminals. In addition to the above-mentioned AIGC changes in content production, AI will also make interaction from traditional touch interaction to include voice interaction, video interaction, gesture interaction and other forms of natural interaction, at the same time, the development of AI intelligent terminals is also accelerating, Counterpoint data predicts that this year's mobile phone shipments with AI functions are expected to account for about 11%, and it is expected to be as high as 90% by 2030.
"5G-A+AI" also brings qualitative changes to other connections: Lianjia, 5G-A brings rich entertainment experiences such as ultra-high-definition video streaming and online games, and combined with smart homes, home devices can bring personalized smart life to users; Connected vehicles, 5G-A paves a high-reliability and low-latency communication highway, AI intelligent driving brings a home-like travel experience, and the development of in-car entertainment will be accelerated. With the support of 5G-A, the AI model will penetrate into thousands of industries......
Obviously, all of this has led to an explosion of traffic on the C-end and B-side, and 5G-A, with higher speed, lower latency, and larger capacity, has become a rigid network requirement in the AI era, releasing the maximum capability value.
"5G-A+AI" is like a super infrastructure in the intelligent era, giving birth to infinite possibilities. At the "Enjoy the High-quality Development of Mobile Video in China's AI Era" forum held by the Video Experience Alliance (VEA) and all parties in the mobile video industry chain, "5G-A + AI + HD" showed many new possibilities. HD can not only bring new experiences such as AI+ new calls and naked-eye 3D to the C-side, but also bring more possibilities to the B-side. This is true whether it is high-definition entertainment content on the large screen of the vehicle, high-definition images in telemedicine, and panoramic high-definition video transmitted in smart coal mines.
Full HD and intelligent experience are becoming a necessity of the future.
02
AI Network Access, "Two-way Travel" with 5G-A
"5G-A+AI" has brought a beautiful new world of "five intelligent connections", but also brought challenges to the network. Zhao Dong, Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Huawei's Wireless Network, believes that 5G-A will face great challenges due to complex O&M, multi-dimensional experience, and diversified services. Taking multi-dimensional experience as an example, different customers have differentiated experience requirements for 5G-A in different dimensions such as uplink, downlink, high-precision positioning, and low latency, which puts forward higher requirements for 5G-A.
How can these challenges be addressed? The answer is AI access. Zhao Dong pointed out that Huawei has proposed the strategy of "Empowering Networks with Intelligence" to build wireless intelligent twins, reshape O&M, experience, and services, and inject intelligence into 5G-A networks to improve quality and efficiency for operators. At the same time, the wireless agent is role-oriented and provides an intelligent assistant that supports intelligent question answering assistance. Scenario-oriented, intelligent agents that support autonomous closed-loop.
To paraphrase a fashionable phrase, AI and 5G-A are "going both ways". The development of AI requires the solid support of a high-quality 5G-A network, and in order to achieve high quality, 5G-A networks also need the support of AI to comprehensively improve network productivity.
AI access to the network can reshape O&M and change the previous model of senior human experts to a new model of agent-based and human-supplemented. For example, in the repair journey of a retired community, it is difficult for the master to repair efficiently only with experience, but with the help of intelligent twins, it can achieve simplified and efficient operation and maintenance of one station, one fixed cause, and one repair.
AI access to the network can reshape the experience. However, with AI, wireless agents can achieve multi-dimensional, high-precision, real-time perception and optimization, so as to achieve independent optimization of experience and energy saving. In the real-time dynamic optimization of the network after a rainstorm, Zhao Dong demonstrated, the wireless agent performed well, achieving real-time dynamic optimization and real-time autonomous energy saving.
AI access to the network can reshape business. The success of diversified services is the key for operators to stand out from the fierce competition. With AI, the network can accurately evaluate resources based on different service requirements, implement dynamic and optimal allocation of resources, and ensure service experience to the greatest extent. For example, outdoor live streaming requires the network to have uplink and high bandwidth, and the resource allocation of wireless agents can ensure the deterministic experience of the uplink rate and greatly improve customer satisfaction.
During MWC Shanghai, Zhao Dong unveiled the "Kaesong Plan" for AI network access, which aims to accelerate AI network access and comprehensively improve network productivity. It is understood that the first phase of the plan will empower 1,000 site engineers and manage more than 10,000 stations within half a year, covering five cities: Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Bangkok, Jinan and Shenzhen.
When AI network access accelerates, high-quality 5G-A networks will be able to more effectively ensure that the dream of "five intelligent connections" will come true.
03
Postscript: Breaking Boundaries
At MWC Shanghai, I can deeply feel that the future has come, when 5G-A and AI collide, they are breaking boundaries and colliding with a new world of mobile AI.
The boundaries of connectivity are being broken, and the "five connections" of connecting people, families, things, and industries have evolved into "five intelligent connections" with the blessing of AI. Every industry is being reshaped, and every enterprise should think about how to refresh itself and embrace the new era in this paradigm revolution.
In the past, when it came to HD, it was more about the experience on large screens, mobile phones and other terminals, and with the breaking of boundaries by connectivity and the chemical reaction of "5G-A+AI", HD will also be ubiquitous. The large model of Wensheng video accelerates the production of high-definition video content, and "5G-A+AI" has entered thousands of industries, and high-definition carriers have also entered automobiles, coal mines, and medical ...... The China Electronic Information Industry Development Research Institute predicts that China's ultra-high-definition video industry is expected to exceed 7 trillion yuan by 2025.
Even the role of network equipment vendors is changing. Zhao Dong said that with the introduction of AI into the network, Huawei will transform from a solution provider to a co-creator of operators' intelligent networks, providing operators with a wider range of business value and accelerating the intelligent transformation of networks through the symbiosis and growth of intelligent twins and networks.
When all boundaries are broken, a better era of mobile AI is coming, and such a future is worth looking forward to.