Building an All-Scenario 5G-A IoT Foundation, Embracing 100 Billion Intelligent Connections

[Shanghai, China, June 29, 2026] During MWC Shanghai 2026, Zeng Chuang, President of Huawei Wireless FDD Product Line, delivered a keynote speech entitled "Building an All-Scenario 5G-A IoT Foundation, Embracing 100 Billion Intelligent Connections" at the GSMA IoT Summit. In his speech, he stated "AI and IoT are mutually enabling each other, and IoT is quickly advancing to AI-IoT. To capitalize on the blue ocean of all-scenario intelligent connectivity, the industry chain needs to jointly foster a thriving ecosystem of chips, modules, and devices while pushing intelligent application innovation. With 5G-A full-stack IoT technology, differentiated IoT capabilities can be achieved with one network for all scenarios, unlocking a new space of 100 billion intelligent connections."

Zeng Chuang, President of Huawei Wireless FDD Product Line, delivering a keynote speech

Mutual AI-IoT enablement is driving IoT gains in both scale and quality and building an all-scenario 5G-A IoT foundation.

Mobile IoT is experiencing an immense growth in connections and business value. As of 2025, cellular IoT connections have scaled to 4.7 billion globally. In China, the number of IoT connections has eclipsed mobile phone users, with IoT now making up more than 60% of all cellular connections, and mobile IoT has surpassed CNY50 billion in comprehensive revenue. The rapid rise of AI-integrated devices in the Mobile AI era is shifting IoT's role from a data transmitter to a physical extension of the intelligent world. IoT is creating higher value and becoming more intelligent by transmitting not only bytes but tokens. IoT is moving towards all scenarios, creating 100 billion connections to meet more diverse requirements.

5G-A IoT provides full-stack differentiated technical capabilities: ranging from high-speed, high-value to low-power, low-cost, and even ultra-low-power, ultra-low-cost, covering both active and passive connections. This meets the diverse demands of all-scenario IoT, truly enabling the connection of all elements. Building differentiated IoT capabilities on one network to achieve ubiquitous coverage and simplified deployment is the key path to scaling IoT.

5G-A One Network with Multi-Dimensional IoT Capabilities,Unlocking 100 Billion Connections

The medium-to-high-speed IoT boom and bidirectional application-network synergy are propelling the industry towards the 100-million milestone.

5G RedCap has entered a new phase of scaling, where the chipset, module, and device ecosystem is thriving and mainstream chipset vendors have launched their products. The module costs have continued to decrease, and RedCap connections have exceeded 10 million. In addition to vertical industries, RedCap is entering consumer services like smart cockpits and smart watches. Network-wise, operators are accelerating commercial use and verification globally. In China, RedCap nationwide coverage has been achieved by leveraging the world's largest 5G network, and a number of new services are helping operators gain market shares. Continuous 5G coverage is enabling rapid RedCap growth towards 100 million connections.

The standardization of eRedCap technology in Release 18 has been frozen, with commercial use expected to start in 2026. The industry needs to accelerate the end-to-end incubation to further lower costs and power consumption and strengthen uplink capabilities. This is key to bringing intelligent connections to more use cases and making 5G IoT a ubiquitous presence.

Ambient IoT is on fast track to development end-to-end, opening a new connection space

Ambient IoT is battery-free and features ultra-low costs, establishing itself as a foundation for digital twins and enabling unmanned, intelligent management. It is advantageous in device-network synergy to facilitate a further leap in IoT capabilities. For local-area applications, 3GPP Release 19 was frozen and over 20 showcases are now live globally to show its potential in manufacturing, warehousing, and logistics industries. The world's first end-to-end solution has been launched, and more business models will also be explored to fully unleash the technical and business benefits.

With regard to wide-area applications where full visibility and management are required, Release 20 is expected to be frozen by H1 of 2027, supporting solar power supply and AI-based positioning. The goal is to make it tenfold more competitive—cellular co-coverage, ultra-low power (mW) of tags, ultra-low costs, and hundred-meter-level positioning. To realize this goal, the industry needs to collectively incubate more chips, multi-form tags, and applications to ensure wide-area AIoT applications in supply chain logistics, asset sensing, and item locating, opening a new connection space.

Huawei will work with chipset and module partners to enrich the ecosystem, and collaborate with operators to build differentiated capabilities in a single network and explore new business models. It will also team up with industry customers to explore new AI-based smart connectivity applications. This will help build a foundation for a new space of 100 billion intelligent connections.