Huawei and China's Big Three Carriers Unveil 5G-A, U6GHz, and AI Innovations at MWC Shanghai 2026
The three-day 2026 Shanghai World Mobile Communication Conference (MWC Shanghai 2026) opened on June 24 at the Shanghai New International Expo Center under the theme “Intelligence Ignites Innovation,” focusing on 6G, mobile AI, and embodied intelligence.
Huawei Rotating Chairman Wang Tao delivered a keynote address, noting that each generation of technological breakthroughs pushes the limits of spectrum efficiency and performance, network architectures are gradually moving toward flat designs, and new applications and services continue to emerge, expanding the boundaries of human communication.
During the exhibition, Huawei joined forces with China’s three state-owned carriers — China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom — to unveil innovations in 5G-A large uplink and experience-driven operations, AI-renovated core businesses, and Token-based operations models. On the infrastructure front, Huawei introduced its AI-Centric target network architecture. The company reported that 5G-A subscriber numbers have already surpassed the 100 million mark.
Large uplink capability has become a critical pillar of carrier network infrastructure in the Token operations era, as mobile AI traffic drives surging demand for upstream bandwidth. In the age of the agent-driven internet, the explosion of agent-based services demands ultra-broadband networks capable of delivering large uplink capacity, high reliability, and low latency. U6GHz is emerging as the next-generation spectrum to meet these requirements, and its end-to-end industrial ecosystem is now ready. Globally, more than 20 countries and regions have designated U6GHz for International Mobile Telecommunications, covering nearly 80% of the world’s population. Huawei declared 2026 the commercial year for U6GHz, with the Middle East expected to deploy the world’s first 5G-A commercial network on U6GHz spectrum, followed by operators in Hong Kong and Macau.
Looking ahead, Huawei said it will work with carriers across Guangdong, Shanghai, and Hebei provinces to AI-reconstruct consumer and home broadband services throughout 2026. For the enterprise market, the company plans to build “compute + network” AI computing services, and accelerate the deployment of domain-specific intelligence across wireless, transport, and other fields in key regions to synergize maintenance, optimization, energy efficiency, and user experience.
At the conference, China Mobile and Huawei’s joint wireless network intelligentization solution won two awards at the inaugural “Global Mobile Awards · Asia” (GLOMO Asia): “Best AI-Driven Network Solution in Asia” and “Best Mobile Innovation for Climate Action in Asia.” The solution leverages AI technologies including digital twins and the industry’s first carrier-grade agent-efficient interaction interface protocol (A2A-T) to enable secure coordination between China Mobile’s wireless network agents and Huawei’s wireless intelligence capabilities.
Currently, China Mobile and Huawei are conducting joint innovation pilots across six provinces and cities — Guangdong, Shanghai, Anhui, Fujian, Jiangsu, and Henan — covering 200,000 base stations and 1 million cells, and empowering over 2,000 network engineers. Pilot results show a trouble-ticket automatic closure rate of 15%, an additional network-wide energy savings gain of 5.5%, and number-allocation accuracy of 90%.
MWC Shanghai 2026 runs from June 24 to June 26, with Huawei’s exhibition area located in Hall N1 of the Shanghai New International Expo Center.