Huawei’s President of Carrier BG, Li Peng, delivered a speech at MWC Barcelona 2023 Day 0 Forum, highlighting how 5G is leading to a smart world and how the next step towards 5.5G will be critical to achieving this goal. Li emphasized the importance of the industry working together to move towards an ultra-wideband, green and smart world, and that Huawei’s GUIDE business plan can be key to achieving this milestone.

According to Li, connectivity+ is critical to the thriving development of 5G, which has deployed more than 230 commercial networks by the end of 2022, supporting more than 1 billion users and a multitude of 5G devices. Operators are innovating to expand connectivity and offer end-to-end digital services that combine connectivity with services such as social networking.

In addition, operators are extending connectivity+ to deliver better experiences and more efficient services in the home, generating more value as 5G and fiber penetration continues to grow. Mainstream technologies such as 5G, AI and cloud computing are driving industrial digitization and generating new strategic opportunities for operators.

According to Li, operators will continue to enhance their network capabilities to offer more guaranteed experiences, which means connectivity+ must be more open. Huawei has joined the GSMA-led CAMERA project, which will help operators transform their networks into service enablement platforms and monetize a better customer experience.

Finally, Li stressed that the evolution from 5G to 5.5G will be key to meeting the growing requirements of a smart world deeply integrated with the physical world, and Huawei is ready to work with its industry partners to deliver a ubiquitous 10 Gbps experience with innovative wireless, optical and IP technologies. In addition, the company will explore use cases such as vehicle-road collaboration and environmental monitoring to integrate sensing and communication, and build a unified energy efficiency indicator system to drive the development of green industry.