At Mobile World Congress Shanghai 2024, James Chen, President, Carrier Business at Huawei, gave a keynote speech entitled « Secondary 5G Innovation: Charting a New Course for Business Success ».

While primary innovation unleashes tech dividends, secondary innovation accelerates business success – and there are numerous examples of this from throughout history.

The compass was invented in China, making it possible for humankind to travel the sea. In the 16th century, Magellan completed his first round-the-world voyage. Later, with the help of high-speed gyroscopes, navigation developed rapidly, achieving the current annual global maritime trade of US$500 billion.

As early as the days of ancient Greece, the prototype steam engine was invented, and in the 18th century Britain’s James Watt successfully improved the concept, leading to the first industrial revolution. With the invention of internal combustion engine and motor, the automobile industry achieved prosperity.

If we look at mobile communications, after the Italian scientist Marconi completed transoceanic wireless communications, with the invention of mobile phones, mobile communications completely opened up the development of mobile communications. By the end of 2023, the number of global mobile users reached 8.6 billion.

This shows that primary innovation releases technological dividends, and secondary innovation accelerates business prosperity. At present, 5G is at a historic moment of secondary innovation.

Secondary 5G innovation will supercharge experience, business, and monetization

ICT technology, represented by 5G, is accelerating its integration into all fields and links of China’s economy and society. China has built the world’s largest and most advanced 5G network. As of April, the number of 5G users in China had exceeded 880 million, accounting for 52% of the world’s total. China’s 5G base stations account for two-thirds of the world’s global base stations, and the number of 5G IoT connections exceeded 30 million. China is leading the world in terms of 5G development scale and quality.

Just as Watt’s improved steam engine opened the industrial revolution, China’s secondary 5G innovation accelerates business monetization and opens a new stage of business success from three aspects: user scenarios, network-cloud-intelligence synergy, and ecosystem collaboration.

Example: Translating inspiration into opportunity

In Kaifeng, Henan Province, there is a famous blind date show. Many young people come to sign up to find a partner, speaking up bravely to show their affections. When the show begins, the walls, the hills, and the opposite teahouse are all crowded with enthusiastic tourists, and the front row is crowded with live streamers.

Many live streamers will use multiple mobile phones, at the same time connected to multiple livestreaming platforms. If network stuttering occurs, they may lose followers. The streamers’ top concern is ensuring that they can live stream among thousands of mobile phones onsite, with high-definition, non-stuttering images. Chinese operators have found the answer to this scenario.

Scenario innovation: Reinventing the value of user groups and scenarios to accelerate multi-metric network monetization

To meet the differentiated requirements of live broadcast for network experience, 15 carriers in China have subscribed to live broadcast packages that provide heavy traffic and guarantee live video upload experience, greatly increasing their ARPU.

There are four considerations for developing live broadcast packages: first, the potential customers must be found quickly; second, the package is accurate; third, the experience is stable; fourth, the user can stay. With the large uplink and preferential network access capabilities of 5G, operators meet the specific requirements of live broadcasters in an end-to-end manner.

Live broadcast scenarios open the door to upstream network monetization. With new capabilities such as service-level acceleration, and deterministic experience, we can gradually extend to more scenarios, more people, and more applications, reconstruct the spatial and temporal value of people in scenarios, and accelerate multi-dimensional network monetization.

Integrated innovation: New Calling as a new entry to information services with network-cloud-intelligence synergy

The new call is one of the hot spots for the second innovation of 5G services: 5G + cloud + AI. Through the collaboration of network, cloud, and intelligence, converge and innovate to build a new entry point for digital services.

Its original innovation intention, based on AIGC, focuses on fun for young people, big subtitles for the elderly, real-time translation for overseas business travelers, and ultimately on ensuring a good product experience.

Of course, business success requires continuous incubation of high-value scenarios and high-quality applications, refined operation assurance, and continuous innovation of Internet marketing.

The new call service uses the dialup disk of a mobile phone as the entry, providing a HD interactive call experience, and continuously evolving to providing all-scenario information services.

The development of new calls goes through two phases. In the first phase, AIGC is used to build products based on HD call experience and expand the number of subscribers.

In the second phase, high-quality applications are built quickly by incubating high-value 2C and 2B scenarios. In the future, multiple call products will be integrated to build a full-scenario information service portal through network, cloud, and intelligent collaboration.

Cloud mobile phones have achieved a « real-like » experience. The next steps are for image resolution to be upgraded to 2K, and latency gradually reduced to 100 ms – in effect achieving the real experience.

In terms of operation, Zhejiang Cloud T Card launched one SIM card = cloud mobile phone + sponsored traffic + cloud disk + rights, and the cloud mobile phone business developed rapidly. In the next phase, Huawei will work with carriers to continuously develop ecosystem and product evolution, incubate new AI applications.

Integrated innovation: IoV with network-cloud-intelligence synergy

Unmanned delivery vehicles can flexibly avoid vehicles and pedestrians and actively identify traffic signals. More than 1000 such delivery vehicles will soon be deployed in Shenzhen. Unmanned delivery vehicles perform video backhaul and remote control through 5G networks, which will bring new opportunities for operators.

In the next five years, 100 million new online vehicles will be added worldwide every year.

In the passenger car market, 4G connectivity remains the mainstream. As cars become more and more intelligent, 5G is overwhelming, and mobile phones, homes, and cars will be deeply integrated. The high-performance eMBB module and the RedCap cost-effective module can meet the high-end and low-end connection requirements of automobile enterprises respectively.

In the commercial unmanned vehicle market, 5G large uplink has met the requirements for 1080p HD video backhaul. QoS and slicing will further ensure video backhaul and remote control.

Integrated innovation: IoVT with network-cloud-intelligence synergy

RedCap can provide the connection capability with optimal performance and cost. Currently, the core, module, and device ecosystem of RedCap is mature, and the industry traffic package has been successfully implemented.

In terms of industry, the RedCap Industry Summit was recently held in Suzhou to discuss the expansion of 5G IoT and build billion-level connections. In terms of the market, Huawei will continue to build standard products that can be quickly replicated and provide continuous coverage of 5G networks.

Collaborative innovation: E2E industry collaboration boosts video service traffic

Currently, whether consumers watch short videos, long videos, or video calls, the resolution is 540p or 720p. At a recent forum in Shanghai entitled “Enjoy HD China: AI era mobile video high-quality development forum”, Huawei proposed the « 1080P silent opening » initiative to improve consumer experience, enhance VIP user stickiness, and make full use of China’s leading network capabilities.

The number of naked-eye 3D terminals is also growing rapidly, and the 3D content ecosystem is becoming mature. We hope to promote further breakthroughs in 3D content, technologies, and experiences through multi-industry alliances to achieve win-win results.

Advancing from 5G to 5.5G to unlock more business opportunities

Leading operators are moving from 5G to 5G-A. Over 30 operators have completed 5G-A technical verification and 15 operators have started commercial deployment.

5G-A enables smart bicycles to move towards vehicle-road collaboration and expands the business space from connectivity to cloud. 5G-A supports passive IoT and opens up 100 billion new IoT spaces.

5G business success is not achieved overnight. Instead, it involves exploration, practice, and innovation. Huawei is willing to work with operators and ecosystem partners to promote secondary 5G innovation and jointly usher in a new stage of 5G business success through scenario innovation, convergence innovation, and cooperative innovation.

This Industry Viewpoint was authored by Eli Katz, Founder and CEO of XConnect

Fraudsters are ramping up their attacks on messaging services and it’s draining revenue streams. SMS is a hugely valuable channel for brands with one of the highest engagement rates, and yet it also still holds a large untapped business market. Despite this, it is facing an uncertain future due to a sharp rise in fraudulent activity. … [visit site to read more]

Two years after India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) sought views on the need for overhauling laws governing the telecommunications sector (and nearly 75 years after the last relevant legislation of the sector) India has a new, updated Telecom Act. It came into effect on 26 June.

The Telecommunications Act 2023 (the year refers to when it was introduced rather than when it became law), replaces a number of earlier laws, including the Indian Telegraph Act 1885 and the Indian Wireless Act 1933.

It’s clearly an understatement to say that technology has changed a lot since then. At the very least, many definitions and terms are completely different, but provisions for spectrum allocation and right of way also needed looking at, along with regulations related to ease of doing business and penalties for offences and non-compliance.

Which seems to be what has happened. As India’s Economic Times points out, there is now a simple regulatory framework. The licensing regime has been replaced with an authorisation mechanism. Right of way rules (a big problem a few years ago) have been updated.

There’s a clearly defined framework for spectrum assignment, including efficient spectrum utilisation, and an adjudication mechanism to resolve disputes before they go to law.

There are also provisions to take necessary measures for national security and public safety. In particular the Act confers power on the government to take temporary possession of telecom networks during public emergencies, including natural disasters. In addition there is now a framework for blocking and interception.

Obviously there’s a lot more to this legislation: there are 11 chapters and 62 sections in the new Act. But the long wait before its arrival makes it clear that legal frameworks are in danger of being left behind by telecoms in some territories.

Indeed, operator Cameroon Telecoms (Camtel) recently suggested that the country’s parliament needs to reform outdated legislation and provide a robust legal framework for the country’s digital economy.

Some legislators clearly agree. Tellingly, Bara Julien, president of the Parliamentary Network for Information and Communication Technologies, is quoted as saying: “Our telecoms laws are obsolete as they date back to many years. But the evolution of technology is constant.”

It’s a point that could be made in many markets with outdated telecommunications laws. How quickly will they respond?

Telecom Namibia has announced what it calls a three-year transformative partnership via a joint venture between mobile technology company ZTE Corporation and its partner company Huafull International Limited.

As part of the company’s five-year Integrated Strategic Business Plan (ISBP) 2027, Telecom Namibia intends to invest in the modernisation of its mobile network (called tn mobile) and coverage expansion. This will include the rolling out of new mobile base stations and the upgrading of existing mobile base stations across the country.

Under the terms of the agreement, Telecom Namibia will procure cutting-edge mobile radio access equipment from the ZTE Corporation and Huafull International Limited joint venture to bolster its mobile network capacity and coverage across the country, including previously underserved areas. The partnership will facilitate the deployment of advanced mobile radio access technology such as 4G, 4.5G, and 5G in order to bring quality, fast, and reliable mobile broadband services to tn mobile consumers.

ZTE Corporation, together with Huafull International, has been involved in the design, construction, and operation of Telecom 3/4G wireless networks since 2013.

Telecom Namibia says the integration of ZTE’s state-of-the art equipment into its network will enable the deployment of next-generation technologies, empowering users with faster data speeds, and improved reliability, while expansion in coverage through the deployment of new sites will enable seamless connectivity.

By leveraging ZTE and Huafull’s expertise and innovation, Telecom Namibia says it aims to accelerate the expansion of its mobile network footprint and deliver enhanced services to both urban and rural areas across the country. 

In yet another example of the continuing importance to fintechs of emerging markets, Pyypl, a fintech company in the Middle East and Africa (MEA), has announced a principal licence membership and strategic framework agreement with payment giant Visa.

The licence enables Pyypl to issue virtual and physical prepaid Visa cards, through its accessible mobile application, directly to its hundreds of thousands of active users, elevating its users from cash, mobile money and being financially underserved to the world of digital payments.

The strategic framework agreement further recognises the licence approval process in other markets that Pyypl is entering. With the support of local regulators, Pyypl is able to provide access to prepaid Visa cards in these markets, fast-tracking financial inclusion across the MEA region.

This, says Pyypl, marks the latest innovation in its transformational consumer offering and accelerates its international expansion by enabling the company to offer, over time, prepaid Visa cards on a pan-regional basis.

The partnership is aligned with Visa’s growth and innovation strategy of enhancing access to capabilities for 850 million digital natives across MEA.

Pyypl says it is one of the fastest-growing fintechs in the MEA, powered by 100% proprietary technology and operational in multiple markets across Africa and the GCC.

The company adds that its purpose-driven approach aims to offer transformational financial services to 850 million financially underserved smartphone users across Africa and the Middle East in a single app – via internationally accepted virtual and physical prepaid cards, and instant domestic and international user-to-user transfers as well as remittances to 80 countries.