Viewpoint
On day 2 of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) Barcelona this year, Li Peng, Huawei’s Corporate Senior Vice President and President of ICT Sales & Service, shared his views about the advancing intelligent world in a keynote speech – outlining what the intelligent world means for carriers, and what networks need to do to prepare for the advancement in our increasingly intelligent society. AI has been a huge overarching theme of this year’s MWC, and Li Peng’s sentiment is no different, as Huawei estimates that by 2030, the intelligent economy will be worth almost $19 trillion.
Li outlines that as we have witnessed the vast changes in the ICT industry over the last two decades, we will see many more new changes as quickly approach a fully intelligent world. Most importantly, Li notes, the intelligent world “unleashed the potential for ubiquitous connectivity.”
The intelligent world will create a more efficient way to create and process information, and by 2026, it‘s estimated that AI will create over 100 billion GB of data, which is both a massive requirement and opportunity for carriers. But what exactly does it mean for them? It means that there will be an increase in innovations like livestreaming and cloud phones, but for these to work to the best of their ability, low latency, quality of service and guaranteed uplink are paramount, says Li. If this is done well, the carriers will be able to monetize mobile services beyond just connectivity, and Huawei estimates that the market will be worth over $100 billion.
Li gives the example of the insurance industry. If someone has a car accident, they use 5G New Calling to deal with the insurance claim. The one-stop solution reduces the handling time from hours to minutes. Consumers can see the ease and tangible benefit that the service will bring to their everyday life. Use cases like this can help carriers monetize the B2B2C market.
These days, Li notes, everything can be connected, from roads to warehouses, from land to sea, and from cities and to the most remote places on earth, which will only increase over time. But these new services require stronger network capabilities, such as deterministic experience, Passive-IoT, etc. The example of cloud phones can use remote storage and processing power with real-time broadband connection is given, so consumers can enjoy better experiences in cloud gaming and remote office.
Li concludes his speech by emphasising that, “the intelligent world is around the corner. The opportunities are endless. Let’s build today’s networks for tomorrow’s applications. Together, we can succeed in advancing the intelligent world.”