Huawei Advocates for 5G Evolution to Meet AI Demands
Huawei is advocating for advancements in 5G technology to meet the increasing demands of artificial intelligence.
Exponential Growth in ARPU and Data Usage Driven by Advanced 5G and AI
At MWC 2025 in Barcelona, Li Peng, Senior Vice President of Huawei and President of ICT Sales & Service, made a bold prediction. He anticipates that the swift adoption of 5G-Advanced (5G-A) and AI applications will drive double-digit growth in both data usage and mobile subscriber ARPU.
Li discussed how operators can harness AI to extract more value from their networks. He highlighted how this technology is transforming human-machine interaction and creating new latency demands.
An Expanding Intelligent World
Li envisions a future dominated by intelligence: “We are quickly entering a fully intelligent world. Intelligent applications are proliferating, setting new demands on networks,” he stated. “By adopting and evolving 5G, we can unlock the infinite potential of mobile networks,” he added.
The evolution of human-machine interaction is moving:
From simple text-based interaction,
To voice,
To gestures,
And other multimodal interactions.
According to Huawei’s “Intelligent World 2030” report, by 2030, there will be six billion mobile AI agents worldwide.
Networks Adapted for Innovative Applications
To support innovative applications like AI-based voice assistants and cloud phones, networks must ensure latency, Li stated. This will require transitioning from non-standalone (NSA) 5G to standalone (SA) 5G, and ultimately to 5G-A.
Many operators are adopting various technologies to minimize base latency and ensure differentiated, deterministic latency for specific scenarios. Network upgrades will also help operators expand their coverage and ensure a seamless experience for tens of billions of new human connections and hundreds of billions of new IoT connections, he stated.
Personalized Content Enabled by AI
Li argued that AI-enabled content production and distribution are raising the bar for upload and download speeds. He noted that AI is transforming how content is produced and distributed. AI-based recommendations are more targeted than ever, enabling the distribution of more personalized content to a broader audience.
Operators should brace for a surge in data traffic over the next five years, leading to unprecedented network demands. They will need more spectrum, greater network capacity, and enhanced upload and download bandwidth, Li insisted.
He also mentioned that AI will bring more complex application scenarios and a more diverse range of experience requirements. From a network perspective, this will lead to a shift from traditional resource-focused operations and management (O&M) to an application-focused approach.
He specified that some operators are already developing AI-based O&M systems. These agents can use digital twins to predict each user’s personalized needs, reducing service time-to-market from days to minutes.
In terms of network maintenance, AI agents with machine learning capabilities can predict and pinpoint faults within seconds, thus enhancing troubleshooting efficiency by 30%. For network optimization, digital “sandboxes” can simulate real application traffic, allowing AI agents to analyze traffic patterns and optimize networks 24/7 based on application needs.
Monetizing User Experience with 5G-A and AI
Li emphasized that pioneers are already deploying 5G-A on a large scale to accelerate business monetization in the AI era. “The new network capabilities will give rise to new business models. Operators can move beyond traffic monetization to begin monetizing the experience itself,” he stated.
He indicated that operators worldwide are actively exploring new ways to monetize experience based on factors like speed, latency, and VIP benefits. They have launched personalized services for business travelers, live streamers, and AI cloud phone users. Some are already expanding into the B2B2C market by exposing network capabilities through open APIs.