At the 2025 MWC Shanghai, Huawei hosted the "Mobile AI Infrastructure Summit," bringing together global operators, AI ecosystem partners, industry standards organizations, academics, and third-party testing institutions to explore the future development path of the mobile AI industry. The summit yielded two key consensus points: first, enhancing uplink experience is a critical requirement for mobile AI development; second, network-service synergy is the foundation for monetizing mobile AI experiences. Additionally, the establishment of the "Intelligence-Driven Network" GSMA Foundry marks a new phase where the communications industry focuses on mobile AI experience management and experience-driven network construction.
Deep Collaboration Across Industry, Academia, and Research to Accelerate Mobile AI Prosperity
In his opening speech, Wen Ku, Chairman of the China Communications Standards Association (CCSA), emphasized that the integration of 5G-A and AI is a vital direction for the evolution of communication networks. He proposed three key initiatives: using standards as an anchor to define experience baselines, building an "intelligent network fusion" foundation with the network as the base, and fostering a collaborative development paradigm with ecology as the wing, all to jointly pioneer the future of the mobile AI industry.
Industry representatives from companies like Rokid, MiniMax, and Unitree shared insights into the core of differentiated competition for AI service providers and the keys to rapidly capturing market share. AI agents are transitioning from traditional smartphone touchscreen interactions to multimodal interactions involving voice, video, gestures, and more. While AI applications continually enhance audiovisual bitrates and boost model computational power, they also rely on 5G-A networks to reduce interaction latency and improve AIGC efficiency. For instance, an uplink speed of 20Mbps can ensure the smoothness and accuracy of AI video stream interactions.
Foreign academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering Luo Zhiquan, operator representatives, and industry testing agencies like Ookla shared practical applications of AI in network optimization and strategic plans for fully embracing AI. AI is reshaping mobile networks and the communications industry, helping operators achieve comprehensive digital transformation in networks, operations, maintenance, and business. This shift moves from traditional traffic management to experience management, providing differentiated services that empower various industries. Attendees unanimously agreed that uplink speed, latency, and stability have become key metrics for evaluating network capabilities in the mobile AI era.
From MBB Infrastructure to Mobile AI Infrastructure: GigaBand Accelerates Network Service "Experience Monetization"
Huawei highlighted at the summit that its GigaBand solution, through spectrum resource pooling, multi-mode convergence, operational optimization technologies, and optimal resource orchestration, helps operators build a "mobile AI elastic network." This enables the network to adapt to devices and services, addressing the demands of new AI services for the smooth evolution of 5G SA networks. Deployment results in Hong Kong show that after GigaBand spectrum pooling, multiple frequency bands were upgraded to 5G SA. While maintaining stable 4G user experience, the 5G user experience saw a maximum improvement of 2.28 times, aiding operators in constructing efficient, intelligent, and green 5G SA networks.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is mobile AI infrastructure?
Mobile AI infrastructure refers to the advanced network framework that integrates artificial intelligence with mobile communication technologies, like 5G-Advanced, to support low-latency, high-reliability, and high-uplink-speed applications essential for AI-driven services.
Why is uplink experience so important for mobile AI?
Enhanced uplink capabilities are crucial because many AI applications, such as real-time video analytics and multimodal interactions, require sending large amounts of data from devices to the cloud quickly and reliably to ensure responsive and accurate services.
How does 5G-A contribute to AI monetization?
5G-A provides the necessary bandwidth, reduced latency, and improved stability that enable new AI services and business models, allowing operators to offer differentiated experiences and tap into new revenue streams through improved service quality.
What role does industry collaboration play in mobile AI development?
Collaboration among operators, technology providers, standards bodies, and application developers ensures that networks are optimized for AI requirements, facilitates the creation of unified standards, and accelerates the deployment of innovative services that meet market needs.
What is the significance of the GSMA Foundry initiative?
The "Intelligence-Driven Network" GSMA Foundry represents a collective industry effort to transition towards experience-centric network management and operation, fostering innovation in how mobile AI services are delivered and monetized.
How can operators prepare their networks for mobile AI?
Operators should focus on upgrading to 5G-SA architectures, implementing solutions like spectrum pooling for flexibility, and adopting AI-based optimization tools to dynamically manage resources and ensure consistent user experiences.
The integration of 5G-A network upgrades with innovative technologies like GigaBand, combined with collaborative innovation across the entire industry ecosystem, is rapidly making mobile AI a new engine driving growth in the communications sector. This partnership is paving the way for a new paradigm of "intelligent services everywhere" in digital life. To explore strategies for enhancing your network capabilities, discover advanced solutions here.
2025 MWC Shanghai took place from June 18 to June 20 at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre (SNIEC). Huawei's exhibition area was located in Hall N1. With 5G-A commercialization accelerating in 2025, Huawei joined global operators, industry elites, and thought leaders to delve into how AI technological innovation can reshape business, infrastructure, and operations, unlocking new growth opportunities and accelerating progress toward an intelligent world.