Huawei Rotating CEO Ken Hu

Building Intelligent Networks and Reshaping the World with Mobile

LONDON, Nov. 17, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The 8th Global Mobile Broadband Forum kicked off in London today, gathering over 1,400 leaders from mobile telecom operators, vertical industries, standards organizations, and industrial alliances around the world. Ken Hu, the Deputy Chairman and Rotating CEO at Huawei, outlined a world where all things are connected, presenting telecom operators with nearly limitless growth potential.

Today, there are 20 million shipping containers in the world, and 300 million LED streetlamps. There will be 1.8 billion water meters by 2025, and every year, 100 million new bicycles roll off the factory floor. "Each of these is a potential new subscriber," said Hu. "But to support a future where all things are connected, telecom operators need to strengthen network performance and management. Future networks need to be application-centric, data-driven – and eventually, intelligent."

"We have to believe that everything can be connected and will be connected," he continued. "These opportunities are real. But to seize them, we need a new model."

Hu calls this new model the "scale-out and scale-up approach." First, he recommends that telcos scale out to provide more connections. This will generate revenue, and pave the way for scaling up. Next, they can work with partners to develop value-added services based on the specific needs of industrial applications.

To support these valued-added services, Hu stressed the importance of strengthening networks and making them smarter. "Telcos can start by accelerating deployment of 4.5G and NB-IoT to boost network performance and pave the way for 5G. Then they need to take a look at O&M."

On average, network equipment O&M costs roughly three to four times the cost of the equipment itself. Furthermore, 70% of major network faults are the result of simple human error. "This is not sustainable," said Hu. "But big data analytics and artificial intelligence have given us the tools we need to build smarter networks."

"When facing structural problems, we need architectural innovation," Hu explained. "With operational data, we can feed 'digital brains' of sorts that control and manage networks more intelligently. From O&M to service provisioning, we want to build networks that are automated, self-optimizing, and self-healing. Full autonomy is what we're aiming for. This will drive an exponential increase in efficiency and resource allocation across the board."