China Unicom Beijing and Huawei Are Embracing the AI Revolution, Striding Towards Intelligent Era

[Shanghai, China, June 20, 2025] At Mobile World Congress (MWC) Shanghai 2025, Yang Lifan, Deputy General Manager of China Unicom Beijing, delivered a speech titled "Are We Ready for AI?" and jointly released Smart Operation Network 2.0 with Huawei at the 5G-A Industry Roundtable. The speech highlighted the unprecedented growth of data driven by artificial intelligence (AI), which is making communications networks smarter and more automated. China Unicom Beijing will work with Huawei to upgrade 5G-A network infrastructure, push network evolution from "connection pipes" to "intelligent platforms," and converge ICT innovations.

Yang Lifan is delivering a keynote speech at 5G-A Industry Roundtable

In the mobile AI era, innovative applications like human-level interactions, autonomous driving, and industrial Internet of Things (IoT) are flourishing. This has resulted in explosive traffic growth and the need for higher uplink speeds. For example, cloud-based AI training and high-definition (HD) video upload typically require an uplink bandwidth of more than 20 Mbps. Live-network traffic is expected to surge to five times the current level. Then, China Unicom Beijing's networks will face uplink bottlenecks if only mid-band resources are used, which will compromise AI service user experience. A professional data model by China Unicom Beijing and Huawei predicts that 2029 will be the tipping point.

Networking: 5G-A Multi-Layer Collaboration for Multi-dimensional AI User Experience

China Unicom Beijing and Huawei have deployed the world's first 3D smart 5G-A network across Beijing. The network will tackle the challenges of the AI era and enable ubiquitous 5G-A across both air and ground. The two companies have also piloted the world's first 1:1 3D networking based on high- and mid-band coordination, which enables seamless 5G-A user experience. This network verifies the feasibility of high-band networking. China Unicom Beijing is leading the transition from single-band networks to a layered communications system, with high bands for network capacity, mid-bands for continuous coverage, and low bands and space-air-ground coordination for wide-area coverage. This system will strengthen the foundation for seamless interconnections for all manner of applications. The key to this network is the coordination of high, mid-, low, and other bands for low-altitude and satellite communications.

AI: New Operations System Centered on Autonomous Networks

Conventional networks struggle with network parameters and troubleshooting, and are heavily reliant on manual operations. China Unicom Beijing and Huawei are using AI to enable automated and unattended network operations, which is becoming the industry norm. The two companies are working to achieve automation across all network settings by 2026, covering site deployment, maintenance, optimization, and complaint handling. China Unicom Beijing and Huawei have launched a digital twin system for high-speed rail that makes passenger services fully visualized. The system transforms sensing from the line grid level to the passenger level to enable insights for each individual passenger in seconds. User experience is significantly enhanced by automatic demarcation and locating of all signals, which shortens fault response to within 10 seconds and fault self-healing to within 30 minutes. Moreover, universal intelligent service processing units (UISPs) are used to accurately identify and analyze user services. This enables service-oriented dynamic experience assurance and significantly improves 5G-A operational efficiency and service quality.

Yang stated: "Future networks will feature space-air-ground and spectrum coordination, and their O&M will be dynamic and automated with the help of AI agents. Instead of passively reacting, operators should proactively embrace cutting-edge technology to make communications networks truly intelligent."

David Li, Vice President of Huawei Wireless Network Product Line, remarked: "In order to explore new connection spaces, and unlock new business value, 5G-A networks should fulfill the diverse needs of different applications, user groups, and services. Prioritizing experience-centered networks, we will continue to enable technological innovations in high uplink, low latency, and smart operations to facilitate the implementation of China Unicom Beijing's space-air-ground integrated smart network strategy, with the aim of delivering more-than-fast experiences to users in Beijing."

MWC Shanghai 2025 will be held from June 18 to June 20 in Shanghai, China. During the event, Huawei will showcase its latest products and solutions in Hall N1 of the Shanghai New International Expo Center (SNIEC).

The commercial adoption of 5G-Advanced is accelerating in 2025. Huawei collaborates with global carriers, industry experts, and opinion leaders to explore how innovations in AI can be used to reshape telecom services, infrastructure, and operations to generate new revenue sources and accelerate the transition towards an intelligent world.

For more information, please visit: https://carrier.huawei.com/en/events/mwcs2025