In its annual report for 2023, Huawei has revealed its efforts in assisting telecom operators worldwide in enhancing their customer experience and maximizing the potential of 5G networks. Throughout 2023, Huawei worked with carriers, enabling them to optimize network value and explore new avenues for monetization. Over 300 carriers across more than 100 countries have deployed 5G networks, catering to a staggering user base of over 1.5 billion. Huawei’s contributions have notably propelled carriers to the forefront of mobile network experience, positioning them as leaders in the telecom industry.

The company’s initiatives extended beyond mere deployment, focusing on accelerating the transition to 10 gigabit smart home experiences and facilitating the exploration of innovative business opportunities. Huawei’s support in upgrading network infrastructure and software systems into intelligent entities capable of robust performance, converged cloud services, and intelligent operations has been instrumental in driving ongoing success in the 5G ecosystem.

A significant aspect of Huawei’s collaboration with carriers lies in accelerating 5G monetization strategies, encompassing traditional traffic monetization as well as differentiated experiences and converged new services. These efforts have not only unleashed the full potential of 5G but have also fueled the digital economy’s growth, particularly evidenced by the proliferation of 5G package subscribers exceeding 70 percent in China.

Moreover, Huawei’s endeavors have extended to markets beyond China, where the deployment of 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) services has provided high-speed broadband access to millions of households, substantially bolstering carriers’ revenue streams.

In terms of experience monetization, Huawei worked with carriers to shift towards 5G experience operations based on network capabilities such as rates, uplink, and latency. 5G experience operations have become a key driver of new growth. Deterministic rates have become a new paradigm for rate monetization.

In markets outside China, FWA offerings have shifted from rate-based packages to experience-guaranteed packages, and this has increased the average revenue per user (ARPU) by about 25 percent, the annual report of Huawei indicated.

Innovative approaches to experience monetization, such as deterministic rates and tailored service offerings, have further augmented revenue streams, both in China and international markets. Carriers’ launch of specialized packages catering to various user segments, including livestreaming, gaming, and financial services, has significantly boosted average revenue per user (ARPU) figures.

For instance, in China, carriers launched 5G livestreaming packages, which provided ultra-high uplink rates and VVIP services and increased the ARPU by more than 70 percent. Carriers launched 5G packages with faster network access for gamers and financial investors to deliver a differentiated user experience and further increase ARPU.

In markets outside China, carriers released 5G hotspot acceleration packages which supported on-demand and timebased subscriptions and these packages increased the ARPU by about 23 percent.

Huawei’s commitment to driving new service monetization avenues through the convergence of technologies like 5G, cloud, and AI has opened doors to a plethora of innovative services, thereby adding substantial value to the industry at large.

Additionally, Huawei’s support extends beyond traditional telecom services, with a focus on facilitating industry digitalization through the widespread application of 5G. Initiatives like the establishment of connected 5G factories in China and the implementation of augmented reality (AR) for remote assistance in industries like oil and gas signify the transformative potential of 5G across diverse sectors.

The company’s relentless pursuit of network excellence, characterized by highly coordinated, green, and intelligent 5G networks, underscores its commitment to delivering exceptional user experiences. Huawei’s innovative solutions, including the GigaGreen solution for ultra-broadband and energy-efficient deployments, have played a pivotal role in maximizing spectrum utilization and enhancing network efficiency.

Moreover, Huawei’s cutting-edge technologies, such as Massive MIMO and intermediate frequency solutions, have significantly increased network capacity while reducing energy consumption, thereby alleviating network congestion and driving growth in data usage and ARPU.

Huawei has supported carriers in developing converged applications such as cloud phones, New Calling, and naked-eye 3D. Chinese carriers have attracted a large number of new subscribers to the cloud phone service. Through cloud phones, individual users can access computing power. Cloud phones have become the portal to hallmark 5G applications. The first carrier to launch New Calling with visualized voice calling services has attracted many new customers. The average minutes of use (MOU) per customer increased by about 21 percent and the video call penetration rate increased by about 24 percent.

Huawei has worked with carriers to facilitate industry digitalization through 5G. 5G has been applied at scale in industries such as oil and gas, mining, ports, manufacturing, and healthcare. In China, more than 1,000 connected 5G factories have been built.

In markets outside China, 5G has enabled remote assistance through augmented reality (AR) for offshore oil and gas platforms, and this has significantly improved these platforms’ operating efficiency.

Huawei helps carriers build 5G networks that are coordinated, green, stable, intelligent, and capable of delivering exceptional user experiences. Huawei also facilitates evolution to 5.5G by helping carriers build networks that deliver a 10 gigabit experience. These networks offer 10 times stronger capabilities and create a new space with hundreds of billions of connections.

Huawei helped carriers improve operational and energy efficiency and maximize spectrum utilization. In markets outside China, Huawei helped carriers deploy the ultra-broadband, energy-efficient GigaGreen solution to deliver consistent, high-quality 5G experiences across urban and suburban areas. This solution increased the camping ratio of 5G users to 98 percent and drastically improved the uplink experience.

Huawei’s energy-efficient Eco antennas reduce the power consumption of each site, which leads to a lower operating expenditure (Opex) for carriers.

Huawei helped carriers relieve network congestion to accelerate growth in dataflow of usage (DOU) and ARPU. In markets outside China, the number of users and the network traffic demand increased sharply, and most networks in urban areas became congested.

Huawei’s intermediate frequency (IF) solution helped carriers quickly upgrade their networks to almost double the capacity and reduce energy consumption by 27 percent. The solution also primed the carrier networks for 5G evolution.

Huawei unveiled a six-dimensional high-stability core network model in markets outside China. This model, by preemptively detecting and neutralizing potential risks, has enabled carriers to establish AI-native, stable 5G core networks, setting new benchmarks for network resilience and efficiency.

Furthermore, Huawei’s collaboration with carriers has led to the implementation of differentiated experience assurance mechanisms, facilitating real-time evaluation and dynamic optimization of network functions. This innovative approach has paved the way for enhanced monetization strategies across various dimensions, including network traffic, rates, and latency, thereby driving business profitability for carriers worldwide.

Huawei assisted carriers in verifying the remarkable 10 Gbit/s downlink and 1 Gbit/s uplink rates of 5.5G, revolutionizing user experiences particularly in Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) services.

Notably, Huawei played a pivotal role in launching the world’s first 5.5G smart home service outside China, showcasing innovative offerings such as naked-eye 3D and whole-house intelligence, which have unlocked new business potentials in the smart home domain.

Huawei’s commitment to advancing broadband connectivity has yielded remarkable results, with over 200 million gigabit broadband users and more than 50 carriers offering 5-Gbit/s-or-higher packages by the end of 2023.

Additionally, Huawei’s contributions in the all-optical domain have been instrumental, with ubiquitous all-optical foundations facilitating the digital and intelligent economy’s development. Through solutions like the NetEngine series routers and Network Digital Map Solution, Huawei has empowered carriers to build converged bearer networks and streamline network operations and maintenance.

Furthermore, Huawei’s digital and intelligent transformation solutions have revolutionized carrier operations, driving significant improvements in network traffic, customer experience rates, and mean time to repair (MTTR) metrics.

In the field of transportation, Huawei worked with carriers to complete the verification of the low-latency 5.5G IoV solution on the wide area network (WAN). The solution is expected to be put into commercial use in 2024, and estimates suggest that it will reduce urban traffic congestion by about 20 percent.

By the end of 2023, there were more than 200 million gigabit broadband users, and more than 50 carriers had released 5-Gbit/s-or-higher packages. This was the perfect time to release 10 gigabit offerings.

Huawei helped carriers achieve fast coverage of 100 Mbit/s fiber to the home (FTTH), smooth upgrade to gigabit FTTH, and large-scale deployment of 10 gigabit smart homes, which led to business success in fixed broadband (FBB).

For 100 Mbit/s coverage, Huawei used the central office (CO) + AirPON all-scenario solution to effectively reuse existing resources, implement fast network construction at low costs, reduce carbon emissions, and provide users with a high-quality network access experience.

Huawei provided the gigabit access solution to facilitate upgrades to gigabit services. This solution has been used by many carriers around the world to improve user experiences and achieve stable ARPU growth.

In markets outside China, Huawei helped carriers explore opportunities to monetize new services, such as ultra-fast cloud-based network-attached storage (NAS) and gaming, as well as smart care. As a result, carriers were able to attract new users and increase the ARPU of home broadband services.

New scenarios, such as 10 Gbit/s access and enterprises’ digital and intelligent transformation, require bearer networks with higher bandwidth, lower latency, and higher reliability. Huawei helped carriers build congestion-free, low-latency, scalable, and highly reliable bearer networks. These networks facilitate the development of emerging services and help carriers achieve business success with 5G.

Huawei helped carriers build ubiquitous all-optical foundations with solutions such as optical cross-connect (OXC) and Alps-WDM. Globally, Huawei’s Alps-WDM solution helped carriers increase deployment efficiency, lower overall costs, and streamline the O&M of optical cables. In China, Huawei helped carriers build more than 60 all-optical cities.

Huawei’s NetEngine series routers, which feature large capacity, tight integration, ultra-high stability, and high energy efficiency, have been deployed by many carriers to help them build converged bearer networks oriented to all services.

In addition, carriers used the routers’ capabilities such as network slicing to ensure user experiences and improve user satisfaction.

Huawei’s Network Digital Map Solution enables multi-dimensional visualization, management, and optimization of networks, and this improves network O&M efficiency and accelerates network resource monetization.

In the IP+optical converged bearer domain, to help carriers resolve cross-domain O&M difficulties, Huawei used the iMaster NCE-Super solution to implement end-to-end IP+optical orchestration and unified cross-domain management. This solution covers network planning, construction, maintenance, and optimization, and offers benefits such as visualized O&M, improved network orchestration efficiency, and significantly lower Opex.

In markets outside China, Huawei helped carriers deploy premium international private lines to connect multiple adjacent countries in the region, build international latency circles of 3, 6, and 9 ms, provision services about 50 percent faster, and enable the digital and intelligent transformation of large enterprises in the region.

Huawei’s secure software-defined wide area network (SDWAN) solution helped configure networks in minutes, made them capable of self-healing in seconds, and made them over 30 percent more secure.

In China, Huawei helped carriers provide one-stop services including campus networking and edge IT, so that manufacturing enterprises could store their core design data assets securely on campus while enjoying remote offices on the cloud. The services improved productivity by more than 20 percent and reduced the TCO by about 50 percent.

In markets outside China, Huawei worked with a carrier to provide a campus network solution that integrates 5G, Wi-Fi, optical fibers, and IoT technologies for stadiums. This solution improved the campus network delivery efficiency by more than 30 percent and more than tripled the carrier’s revenue.

In China, Huawei worked with carriers to focus on increasing quality, revenue, efficiency, environmental sustainability, stability, and simplicity. Huawei has actively explored foundational technologies such as telecom foundation models and native intelligence for network elements (NEs), and implemented more than 10 technological innovations to evolve toward Level 4 Autonomous Networks.

In markets outside China, Huawei has helped carriers deploy over 70 ADN applications, such as network energy saving, user experience assurance, intelligent troubleshooting, highvalue customer exploration, and agile service provisioning. The iPowerStar solution has reduced power consumption for wireless networks.

The intelligent Fault Management (iFM) solution has helped multiple carriers improve troubleshooting efficiency by 80 percent. The cell outage detection and compensation (CODC) solution has enabled base stations to automatically compensate for signals in poor weather conditions, ensuring uninterrupted network connectivity and improving customer satisfaction.

In markets outside China, Huawei’s digital and intelligent transformation solution for O&M, which features the collaboration of SmartCare, intelligent O&M, and network optimization, increased network traffic by about 8 percent, improved customer-experienced rates by about 40 percent, and shortened the mean time to repair (MTTR) by about 40 percent.

Baburajan Kizhakedath