5G CCTV: Solving the Last-Mile Challenge for Video IoT

The Internet of Video Things (IoVT) is more than just image capture. It is a sensing system for public safety and a digital foundation for industry upgrades. Using its robust network infrastructure, China Mobile has consistently pushed the boundaries of IoVT, applying it to public safety, governance, and industrial intelligent transformation, and amassed a wealth of real-world expertise in the process. Yet, despite these advancements, two significant hurdles remain: first, the prohibitive costs and lengthy deployment times for optical fiber in remote regions, and second, the complex urban settings that complicate cabling and limit space, hindering governance solutions.

How do we address the last-mile challenge in IoVT access? How can we ensure high-quality IoVT coverage in urban and rural settings? China Mobile Inner Mongolia, partnering with Huawei, tackled this issue head-on in the all-domain IoVT project in Tumed Left Banner and the New Year's Eve support project in Hohhot. Integrating 5G-A, RedCap (lightweight 5G), and IoVT, we delivered an economical and groundbreaking solution.

Building a digital backbone for county-level security through wide-area video networking

China Mobile Inner Mongolia relentlessly pursues digital innovation to tackle last-mile challenges in rural public services and community management across vast regions. In September 2025, the carrier partnered with Huawei and the Governance Service and Data Management bureau of Tumed Left Banner in Hohhot to launch a pioneering IoVT initiative, contributing to Hohhot's smart city development. This collaboration established a top-level design centered on the synergy of the cloud, network, and devices, targeting critical sectors like flood control, agriculture, forestry, and urban management. The project created a robust 5G-A IoVT framework for seamless connectivity, security, and reliability. It lays a strong digital foundation for the region's socioeconomic development.

Harnessing its strengths in networks, technology, and services, as well as its deep understanding of local public service and industry needs, China Mobile Inner Mongolia customized standard products to tailor an end-to-end IoVT solution for Tumed Left Banner. This solution adapted fiber optic deployment to the region's extensive water systems and vast farmlands. Using China Mobile's high-quality 700 MHz low-frequency and 2.6 GHz large-capacity dual-band network, the solution ensures continuous coverage across critical water areas (rivers, lakes, reservoirs, etc.), agricultural and forestry zones, and transportation hubs. The peripheral system uses the '5G DTU + camera' to ensure comprehensive coverage. In remote areas where traditional power is limited or costly, the solution additionally deploys a 'PV + energy storage' solar power supply system.

This innovative deployment method that eliminates trenching and cable burying has supercharged efficiency. It slashed the construction time for the Tumed Left Banner project from four months to under one, safeguarding lives and property against floods. Additionally, it cuts costs by 40% to 90% by eliminating the need for heavy machinery.

Now, Tumed Left Banner has deployed hundreds of high-definition cameras, each generating nearly 800 GB of monthly upstream traffic. Average cell bandwidth utilization has jumped from 12% to 27%, a 15% increase, with rates in high-density areas soaring to 41%.

The high uplink bandwidth of 5G-A enables stable, real-time transmission of HD video feeds back to the platform, where integrated AI analysis delivers remote, real-time dynamic monitoring and situational alerts for critical nodes. This has significantly improved the efficiency and accuracy of Tumed Left Banner's flood control, water management, farm and forest fire prevention, and emergency response.

The project clearly demonstrates the potential of 5G IoVT technology for bridging the digital divide in remote regions and modernizing county-level governance. The model's effectiveness was validated by the all-domain IoVT project in Qingshuihe County. In this area, which is even more remote and challenging than Tumed Left Banner, traditional optical fiber deployment costs can soar into tens or even hundreds of thousands of RMB. The project innovatively implemented the "PV + 5G RedCap" solution to ensure network quality while significantly cutting deployment costs. This innovative approach offers a highly efficient and cost-effective pathway for IoVT adoption in remote regions.

Testing assurance capabilities in urban areas under extreme loads

If rural areas challenge IoVT with coverage breadth, urban areas test it with penetration depth. Urban areas are characterized by high population density, rampant network interference, and large numbers of concurrent mobile services. This results in heavy network pressure, which makes stability and real-time data backhaul a major challenge for China Mobile Inner Mongolia. The carrier's capabilities were put to the test during the New Year's Eve event at Hohhot's Xinhua Square in 2026.

Located in Hohhot's city center, Xinhua Square drew over 25,900 revelers on New Year's Eve 2026. This generated 1,502 GB of network traffic and 35,437 ERLs of call volume. Under these kinds of heavy loads, traditional video backhaul often falters, leading to lag and disconnections. China Mobile Inner Mongolia and Huawei broke ground by deploying the first WAN 5G RedCap IoVT deterministic assurance solution on a live network emergency communication vehicle at Xinhua Square. This marked a new course for real-time security and network assurance at crowded major events.

This solution uses RedCap multi-BWP (Bandwidth Part) intelligent selection technology to allocate high-priority logical slices for IoVT services, building strong assurance in high-density settings. The mobile emergency communication vehicle at Xinhua Square was equipped with 2K and 1080p cameras. Even during peak hours, video data streams were transmitted to the mobile IoVT management platform (powered by the Huiyan platform) with stability, clarity, and minimal latency (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Remote retrieval of HD footage from the 2026 New Year's Eve celebration in Hohhot via the video management platform

Freed from the constraints of conventional fiber optic installation, the live network was rolled out in just 30 minutes. Real-time data streaming to China Mobile's mobile IoVT management platform enabled HD visuals for AI-powered, millisecond-accurate analysis of crowd density and distribution. With this instant feedback, the network assurance center can invoke onsite images and AI data analysis results, integrate them with critical network and load metrics in high-traffic areas, and work alongside the communication assurance team to resolve incidents quickly. Dynamic parameter adjustments, load balancing, and rapid fault resolution helped achieve precise network resource scheduling and fast closed-loop communication assurance (Figure 2).

Figure 2: China Mobile Hohhot and Huawei supported the New Year's Eve event in 2026 using the 5G RedCap IoVT solution

Forging a future through closer IoVT collaboration

From the seamless rollout of the all-domain IoVT project in Tumed Left Banner to the flawless New Year's Eve event support at Xinhua Square, the strategic partnership between China Mobile Inner Mongolia and Huawei has showcased the adaptability of 5G IoVT technology to different urban and rural settings. It has also generated a wealth of valuable experience for the IoVT sector, providing benchmarks for routine governance and crisis management.

Moving forward, China Mobile Inner Mongolia will drive the growth of the IoVT industry ecosystem with two pivotal strategies:

The first strategy is to expand all-domain IoVT, extend sensing boundaries, and achieve in-depth coverage across diverse settings.

Using China Mobile's 700 MHz network, we will continue to extend IoVT coverage from traditional public safety to more industry applications. For wide-area governance, we will enhance IoVT applications in forest and grassland fire prevention, water conservation, road traffic, and urban management, creating an all-encompassing sensing network spanning vast urban and rural areas. For industrial production, we will advance IoVT for safe production and remote maintenance in chemical plants, smart mines, and wind farms. This will enhance the safety and operational integrity of people, equipment, and environments. By serving both public and industrial needs, IoVT will become a trusted foundation for governance and industrial resilience.

The second strategy is to activate the IoVT ecosystem, integrate AI capabilities, and truly empower industries.

The value of IoVT lies in its applications, and the depth of those applications depends on the level of intelligence. We are using Huawei's AI and vision models to transform video from mere recording to thinking. In critical fields like agriculture, forestry, water management, transportation, and urban governance, we will pinpoint sector-specific algorithmic needs to craft tailored intelligent solutions — from wildfire detection and river flood monitoring to parking violation alerts and urban service area management. This will allow IoVT to go beyond just "seeing" — to understanding, judging, and responding with speed and accuracy. By deeply integrating algorithms with real-world scenarios, we will turn IoVT into a universal enabler of digital transformation across industries — delivering truly intelligent sensing for every domain.

We are confident that through close collaboration with strategic partners like Huawei, we can drive sustained, high-quality growth for the IoVT industry — from Inner Mongolia's vast grasslands to markets beyond.