Huawei plans AI-telecom convergence

Huawei Technologies Co will bring artificial intelligence to telecommunication networks in order to elevate network productivity.

The company announced the plan at the Mobile World Congress Shanghai 2024, a major telecom exhibition that concluded in Shanghai on Friday.

"The telecom industry has kicked off 5G-A, while generative AI has achieved major breakthroughs. AI, as a foundational technology for network automation, is set to accelerate the industry's transition toward higher-level network autonomy and play a key role in 5G-A business success," said Yang Chaobin, board member and president of information and communications technology products and solutions at Huawei.

5G-A refers to 5G advanced technology, a crucial upgrade to the 5G network in functionality and coverage. 5G-A features 10-gigabit peak down-link speeds to meet increasingly diverse service requirements. This month marks the fifth year since the commercial launch of 5G in China.

According to Huawei, its plan to bring AI to networks focuses on building an ecosystem of intelligent agents in collaboration with telecom operators to increase network productivity. Its first phase looks to cover 1,000 site engineers and 10,000 sites across Hangzhou, Zhejiang province; Guangzhou and Shenzhen in Guangdong province; Jinan, Shandong province and Bangkok, Thailand, within six months.

"Generative AI is transforming information production, processing, transfer and exchange to create mobile AI opportunities and boost traffic, connections and services. This also means higher requirements for differentiated service experience monetization and automated network," Yang said.

According to him, Huawei's upgraded autonomous driving network solution is now powered by the company's self-developed telecom foundation model. The solution will enhance the value of networks in three aspects: service enablement, network maintenance and experience assurance.

So far, more than 60 carriers and partners have also announced commercial deployment of 5G-A technologies, with over 30 devices supporting 5G-A set to launch this year, marking a significant milestone in the digital era, according to data collected by Huawei.

The Chinese tech company also said it had successfully reached six separate consensuses with pioneering 5G-A operators from around the world, and launched a joint initiative for high-quality mobile video development in the AI era alongside global operators, industry customers, and other relevant organizations.

Xiang Ligang, director-general of the Information Consumption Alliance, a telecom industry association in China, said: "2024 marks the first year of commercial 5G-A technologies and the integration of AI into a wider variety of devices. The mobile AI era is on the horizon, where intelligent services will be pervasive."

Liu Jun, executive vice-president of Lenovo Group and president of Lenovo China, said China is rapidly developing a unique AI ecosystem, where the integration of AI large language model technology with terminal devices has become a new innovation frontier.

For instance, AI PCs, which integrate AI into their processors and can independently run large language models and applications, signify a major turning point in the PC industry. This innovation is expected to initiate a new product replacement cycle, according to a report by market research firm International Data Corp.