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Huawei's Vision for AI-Driven Growth in Telecommunications

At the 11th Ultra-Broadband Forum (UBBF) 2025, held recently in Paris, James Chen, the head of Huawei's Carrier Business, laid out a transformative vision for the telecommunications industry centered on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Ultra-Broadband (UBB). In his keynote speech titled "Triple Leaps to AI UBB Inspiring New Business Growth," Chen emphasized how telecommunications operators have made significant strides in depth, breadth, and height to drive new growth in the age of AI-UBB.

Chen highlighted key practices that have emerged from collaborations between Huawei and telecom operators. He stated, "Innovations that signify a leap forward lead to substantial business success." Operators can seize this pivotal moment to generate new paths to growth by deepening their experience assurance capabilities, expanding their business domains to include digital and intelligent services, and enhancing competitive edge through accelerated network intelligence.

Advancements in Depth

The idea of progressing in depth refers to a significant shift from bandwidth-focused monetization to experience-oriented monetization. With AI capabilities integrated into their networks, carriers are now able to accurately identify where improvements in application experience are necessary, proactively ensuring the security and quality of critical applications such as AI-powered cloud gaming and 4K live streaming. An example of this successful application of new monetization models can be observed in a leading Thai operator, which implemented Huawei’s AI-WAN solution to enhance application security features. This leap not only provided users with a smoother gaming experience but also resulted in a notable increase in the Average Revenue Per User (ARPU).

Expansion in Breadth

The second dimension involves extending business lines to encompass digital intelligence and computing services. With global operators controlling over one billion home network gateways, there’s a unique opportunity for them to transition from mere home network providers to comprehensive smart home service providers. Huawei's introduction of the new AI Homehub is a testament to this shift. One operator effectively utilized this gateway to launch smart home services, augmenting their ARPU from home services by 60%.

On the Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) market front, telecom operators can leverage Fiber to the Office (FTTO) solutions to create a unified management platform. This enables them to offer standardized digital and intelligent services, including video and Internet of Things (IoT) capabilities, facilitating the smart transformation of businesses. Huawei's FTTO solutions have already been extensively utilized by China’s three major telecom providers, attracting over 2 million FTTO users.

In the medium to large enterprise sector, operators are employing Wi-Fi-based integrated sensing and communication technologies to develop new growth instruments. For instance, some operators have introduced applications for fall detection in elderly care and intelligent meeting room management for businesses. A leading operator in the United Arab Emirates has deployed Huawei's AirEngine Wi-Fi 7 to offer Wi-Fi-as-a-Service solutions, achieving a 67% reduction in total operating costs for meeting room sensor systems.

Heightened Operational Capabilities

The third dimension, concerning height, pertains to transforming the operational and maintenance processes of networks from traditional task-oriented procedures to intelligent operations. Carriers can advance their network autonomy to level 4, leading to smarter networks. In collaboration with MasOrange, Huawei established Europe’s first level 4 autonomous IP network in Spain. Utilizing the iMaster NCE platform, the operator significantly decreased the Mean Time to Repair (MTTR), thereby enhancing customer satisfaction.

As Chen concluded his address, he noted that AI-UBB is still in its infancy and expressed excitement regarding Huawei's continued collaboration with operators and industry partners to foster ongoing innovation. He underscored Huawei’s commitment to supporting operators through experience monetization, creating a second growth curve, and reducing operational costs to thrive in the era of AI.

In conclusion, the insights shared by James Chen at UBBF 2025 illuminate a promising future for telecommunications, where AI and UBB technologies resonate to deliver enhanced services and drive growth across various sectors.