PRESS RELEASE: ZTE Corporation announced that its CEO, Xu Ziyang, attended the 5G Summit & User Conference 2024, where he delivered a keynote speech titled “Digital Bridge of Civilization, Link Across Carbon & Silicon”. The conference, held under the theme”Flourish Through Intelligent Innovation”, gathered industry leaders to discuss the transformative impact of intelligent solutions.
In his speech, Xu Ziyang highlighted ZTE’s remarkable achievements in promoting technological innovation and industrial integration in the digital and intelligent era. These accomplishments underscore ZTE’s critical role in advancing the industry amid the ongoing wave of digital and intelligent transformation, offering valuable insights and direction for the industry’s future development.
ZTE focuses on leveraging its technological prowess to create an ecosystem that combines innovation with practical applications. By integrating its advanced 5G technology with intelligent features, ZTE aims to empower various industries to achieve more efficient and intelligent operations. This approach enhances business productivity and competitiveness while also contributing to the prosperity of the global economy in the age of intelligent innovation.
Below is the original text of Xu Ziyang’s speech titled “Digital Bridge of Civilization, Link Across Carbon & Silicon”:
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,
Good morning.
It is my pleasure to welcome you all to the ZTE Global 5G Summit & User Congress. We are here in Türkiye, a beautiful country that bridges the continents of Europe and Asia. Türkiye has witnessed the evolution and convergence of human civilizations since ancient times with its unique geographical location as a bridge between the East and the West in culture, trade and ideas. This year marks the beginning of the second decade of our global 5G Summit. Over the past ten years, we have collaborated with global customers and partners to accelerate the digital and intelligent transformation of society.
A few weeks ago in Türkiye, we set a new 5G-A record with Turkcell, achieving a peak download speed over 32 Gbps using 5G NR-DC. We’ve deployed tri-mode 50G PON and FTTR-B with Turk Telecom to build an advanced campus network, eliminating bandwidth bottlenecks in high-concurrency scenarios.
In Kazakhstan, we collaborated with VEON to complete “Giga City”, significantly enhancing 4G network throughput through FDD Massive MIMO, enables 5G-like capabilities, helping operators maintain competitiveness in the market.
In Austria, with over a decade of collaboration with H3A, our high-performance network has continuously supported the expansion of their FWA business, salient 5G SA FWA services have now achieved significant scale in the market.
In Indonesia with Smartfren, our Native-AI-based RAN Computing has demonstrated the potential of network infrastructure, enhancing user experience by 15%.
In an age of rapid technological advancement, the concept of “Link” takes on a broader meaning:
- Data Link builds a digital Silk Road, seamlessly connecting the world.
- Wisdom Link redefines computing power and intelligence, transforming social product across dimensions.
- Symbiotic Link builds ecosystem collaboration, where technology and the environment evolve together.
- Civilization Link between carbon-based life and silicon-based intelligence opens up endless possibilities for human in the future.
Data Link:
First, we are building a highway for data connections in the digital world. As an industry leader, ZTE consistently drives innovations and upgrades in network technology. Leveraging our four key capabilities, using UBR, FDD Massive MIMO, RAN Computing, and Green Network, we are creating efficient and lightweight future 5G networks.
UBR solution customized simplified UniSite for operators, significantly reducing equipment numbers and operational costs while enhancing network performance.
FDD Massive MIMO greatly improves spectrum efficiency, delivering multiples of capacity growth and wider network coverage.
Intelligent computing boards with build-in AI capabilities for autonomous service identity and scheduling, greatly improving user experience and network traffic management.
In addition, our commitment to sustainability is embedded in every solution we offer. From components to sites to networks, we achieve comprehensive energy savings, supporting operators in their journey toward carbon neutrality.
Today, our OTN technology is smoothly upgrading to 800G, with the capability to evolve to 1.6T. We have successfully completed the world’s first 2,000-kilometer ultra-long-distance 800G OTN intercontinental transmission with Turkcell. In the home broadband field, global shipments of FTTR devices reached 15 million, and home broadband CPE shipments exceeded 100 million in 2024. We are supporting operators diversify home network applications, driving revenue growth and business success.
We are committed to bridging the global digital divide. In Liberia, through our rural pilot solution with Orange, covered 580 thousand users in rural areas can access Internet, providing affordable devices that enable more users to enjoy digital technology. In South Africa, we collaborated with MTN to achieve the first 5G maritime offshore coverage in Africa, reaching a downlink rate of 210 Mbps at the edge, supporting the growth of the ocean economy.
Our networks extend across land, mountains and sea, which is moving into new frontiers. We are building a low-altitude sensing-computing network to promote the digitalization of the low-altitude economy. At higher altitudes, we launched the industry’s leading ATG system, bringing 5G connectivity to commercial flights at 12,000 meters height. In the broader realm of space, our NTN technology is expanding the boundaries of communication networks even further.
Agile networks require intelligent leadership. ZTE leads in general and intelligent computing, holding the largest servers market share in Chinese telecom market. In accelerated computing, we propose Computing&Network Evolution, Training&Inference Enhancement and Openness&Decoupling, with the aim to provide full-stack capabilities and open decoupling to enhance performance and efficiency.
For various intelligent computing scenario, we offer customized training and inference servers. The new G6 series servers come with the latest generation CPUs and proprietary DPUs, supporting ultra-large-scale networks for high-performance computing needs.
We provide efficient computing power through high-bandwidth, lossless connections and unified networks within and between DCs.
Our advanced liquid cooling technology boosts CDU(Cooling Distribution Units) cooling efficiency by 30%, providing an energy-saving solution for both high-density computing and edge computing.
We self-developed ZTE “Nebula LLM”. Internally, our Nebula Coder Model has improved R&D coding efficiency by 30%, overall R&D efficiency increased 10%. For telcos, our Nebula Telecom Model aims to accelerate the evolution to highly autonomous network, helping operators to reduce the workload of manual maintenance by 80%. We have also built successful industry-specific industry models in manufacturing, water conservancy and urban safety, driving digital transformation across sectors.
Symbiotic Link:
Technology development knows no borders. Innovation depends not only on individual breakthroughs but also on close collaboration and symbiotic growth across industries. We work closely with over 1,000 industry partners worldwide to explore digital transformation across various fields with our collaborations reaching every layer of the digital economy.
Our partnership with Thailand’s True & CPF Group established a 5G-enabled digital food factory, improving production efficiency and flexibility.
Meanwhile, in collaboration with Turk Telecom, our 5G network combined with drones and autonomous vehicles will help farmers achieve automation of the planting and harvesting process and promote the modernization of agriculture and industrial progress in Turkey.
In the millimeter-wave field, we pioneered a new wireless broadcasting model for Sukma Games 2024 in Malaysia, achieving ultra-HD live broadcasting over 5G-A to overcome the limits of wired broadcasting and setting the stage for future event streaming.
As we support digital transformation, green transition is a core principle guiding our commitment to symbiosis between technology and the environment. We achieved a 10% annual reduction in carbon emissions for several years and consistently maintain an “A” rating on the CDP. In partnership with SBTi, we are on track to achieve for scope 1 and 2 carbon neutrality by 2040 and net-zero emissions by 2050. Through joint efforts in technological innovation and ecosystem building, we are exploring a future of intelligence and sustainability with partners worldwide.
Investment in underlying – technology R&D drives technological evolution：
With continuous innovation in foundational technologies, we have consistently invested 20% of our revenue in R&D for many years. We have independently developed more than 130 core chips, offering full-stack deterministic technology for various industries. Our self-developed power amplifier is the first to achieve nearly constant amplifier efficiency, leading the industry.
We’ve also built a unified architecture across different products and platforms that enables visualized component deployment and flexible assembly of all capabilities. On the software side, our TECS Cloud Platform and Nebula LLM have created a superior foundation. All of these help operators maintain industry leadership in diverse scenarios. From foundational technology to upper-level applications, we offer end-to-end products that empower operators and industry clients in their digital transformation, ensuring lasting competitiveness.
Civilization Link：
The flow of bits, like the ceaseless waters of the Bosphorus Strait, connects our physical and digital worlds. The evolution of connections drives the progress of civilization, continuous innovation deepens our collective knowledge. Together, let’s bridge the world through connectivity, create new opportunities with digital intelligence, and usher in a new era of human civilization.