The Future of Mobile AI Networks: Insights from Huawei's Summit on 5G-A Monetization

The Mobile AI Summit, hosted by Huawei during the 2025 Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Shanghai, brought together operators, AI ecosystem partners, academics, and industry stakeholders to discuss the future of mobile AI networks and potential monetization strategies. This gathering aimed to shape the landscape of mobile AI and emphasized two critical consensus points regarding mobile AI development and the monetization of services over 5G-A networks.

Key Consensus Points: Enhancing 5G-A and Network-Synergy

At the summit, participants agreed that enhancing the 5G-A uplink experience is vital for mobile AI's progress and that creating synergy between networks and services is essential for the monetization of AI. Wen Ku, President of the China Communications Standards Association (CCSA), stressed the importance of integrating 5G-A and AI as a key direction for communication networks' evolution. He called for efforts towards establishing standards and fostering collaborative development within ecosystems to lead the mobile AI future.

Prominent industry players, such as Rokid, MiniMax, and Unitree Robotics, engaged in discussions about how AI service providers can differentiate themselves in a competitive market and swiftly capitalize on new opportunities. The dialogue highlighted advances from simple touchscreen interactions to more complex multimodal interactions involving voice, video, and spatial computing.

AI's Expanding Role and Network Capabilities

AI technology is significantly improving audiovisual bit rates, model accuracy, and reducing latency in interactions. This is pivotal for seamless new services involving real-time interactions and high-quality AI video calls that necessitate a minimum uplink speed of 20 Mbps. Several speakers, including Zhi-Quan Luo, a foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and IEEE member, shared insights into AI's role in network optimization and the strategic adoption of comprehensive AI technologies.

AI is revolutionizing mobile networks and the broader mobile industry, aiding operators in achieving digital transformation across their networks and maintenance operations. Furthermore, businesses can start offering differentiated services across various markets, thus transitioning from simple traffic monetization to business-level monetization.

At the summit, the critical metrics for assessing a mobile AI network's capabilities—uplink performance, latency, and stability—were underscored.

GigaBand's Role in Network Evolution

As a frontrunner in 5G-A technology, Huawei introduced its GigaBand solution portfolio at the event. GigaBand provides a seamless evolution of 5G-A networks by facilitating resource aggregation and orchestration through its AIR aggregation and optimization solver. This evolution positions operators to construct flexible networks tailored for diverse services, such as live streaming, AI mobility assistants, and cloud gaming.

In particular, the GigaBand deployment in Hong Kong showcased multiband sharing of 4G/5G networks for various service delivery purposes, achieving a remarkable 2.28 times increase in 5G performance while maintaining a stable 4G user experience. This initiative has propelled operators towards establishing efficient, intelligent 5G standalone networks with lower carbon emissions.

As the 5G-A landscape continues to evolve with GigaBand and other innovative technologies, and as collaborative innovations across sectors flourish, mobile AI is emerging as a new growth driver for the mobile industry, providing users with an enriched digital experience marked by ubiquitous smart services.

Looking Ahead to Intelligent Connectivity

The MWC Shanghai 2025 took place from June 18 to 20, showcasing Huawei's latest offerings at the Shanghai New International Expo Center (SNIEC). The commercial adoption of 5G-Advanced technologies is anticipated to accelerate in 2025, with Huawei working alongside global operators, industry experts, and thought leaders to explore how AI innovations can transform telecommunications services, infrastructure, and operations, generating new revenue streams while fostering a smarter world.

For more information, visit Huawei's Carrier Events Page.