“2024 marks the beginning of the mobile AI era by accelerating the commercialization of 5.5G and AI-enabled devices. These technologies will be the key to strongly promoting the widespread use of intelligent services,” said David Wang, Executive Director of the Board and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Huawei ICT Infrastructure, at Mobile World Congress Shanghai 2024.

Taking place from June 26-28, MWC Shanghai is Asia's largest mobile conference, bringing together many of the region's leading carriers and device manufacturers.

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Huawei brings its product ecosystem and solutions to effectively support the commercial deployment of 5.5G to MWC Shanghai 2024. Photo: Huawei

Figures from Huawei show that the world has more than 1.8 billion 5G users and this technology is applied in many different fields. However, with new services such as cloud phones, glasses-free 3D, etc., higher requirements for the network such as faster speeds and lower latency are set.

In addition, there are industrial services such as passive IoT, smart cars (Internet of Vehicles). All of which require advanced network commercialization such as 5.5G. Conversely, the world will also inherit the benefits when 5.5G is commercialized.

Several major carriers in the Middle East and China have begun deploying and launching 5.5G data packages. According to David Wang, the mobile AI era will change the way people use machines, devices, mobile device manufacturing processes, or content creation; promote the development of society and bring many new opportunities to the mobile industry.

At MWC 2024, Huawei brought 5.5G commercial applications, product ecosystems, and solutions to effectively support 5.5G commercialization. The company said it has reached 6 consensuses with global 5.5G carriers and looks forward to continuing to work with industry partners to seize the opportunities of the mobile AI era and shape an intelligent world.

To date, more than 30 global operators have completed the technical assessment and testing of 5.5G networks. About 10 operators have announced plans to commercialize 5.5G, including launching 5.5G network packages along with other related services.

Several operators in the Middle East and China have begun deploying 5.5G 3-carrier aggregation (3CC) networks with downlink speeds reaching 5 Gbit/s, and many are introducing 5.5G-based business models.

In the market, nearly 20 smartphone models support multi-network integration and many models have this feature installed by default.

2024 is the first year of commercial deployment of 5.5G network and F5.5G gigabit optical network. The combination of network, Cloud and AI will help smart applications become more popular and developed, enhancing and diversifying user experience.