How Huawei enables China Mobile’s fan revenue model

On a September evening at Shanghai Stadium, 80,000 football supporters created an unlikely testing ground for telecommunications innovation. The match between Shanghai Shenhua and Chengdu Rongcheng served as more than sports entertainment—it became a real-world laboratory for solving a critical industry challenge: how carriers can monetise advanced network infrastructure when traditional subscription growth has plateaued.

Huawei invited us to observe this deployment, providing many in attendance with their inaugural exposure to China’s passionate football scene. Amid the fervent atmosphere of blue-and-white clad supporters, something technically significant was unfolding: China Mobile Shanghai’s 5G-A Shanghai infrastructure was handling unprecedented concurrent demand while delivering differentiated service tiers—a monetisation approach that could reshape how carriers justify their 5G-Advanced investments.

The complexity of the undertaking became evident from our vantage point. Maintaining seamless connectivity for tens of thousands of simultaneous users—each streaming, uploading videos, and conducting mobile transactions—demands sophisticated orchestration beyond merely adding more bandwidth. 

This is where Huawei’s GainLeap solution and AI-integrated wireless boards enter the equation.

Pioneering experience-based pricing

China Mobile Shanghai’s initiative represents the first carrier-led attempt in China to commercialise differentiated 5G-A experiences. The “5G-A Exclusive Package for Shenhua Football Fans” targets roughly 200,000 supporters with an annual subscription combining guaranteed network performance and club-related perks.

Package subscribers access dedicated 5G-A network acceleration, comprehensive match coverage through Migu streaming, unlimited video ringback tones, and official Shanghai Shenhua merchandise. The proposition attempts to address what operators increasingly face: saturated user bases where competition on connectivity alone yields diminishing returns.

By bundling enhanced network performance with community-specific benefits, China Mobile Shanghai is testing whether users perceive sufficient value in measurably better experiences to justify premium pricing—a fundamental question for an industry seeking returns on multi-billion dollar infrastructure investments.

The technology stack enabling differentiation

Shanghai Stadium’s 5G-A Shanghai network demonstrates how advanced infrastructure creates commercially viable service tiers. During the September 21 match, premium subscribers achieved download speeds reaching 600 Mbps despite 80,000 concurrent users—a performance level maintained through Huawei’s technical implementation.

The GainLeap solution forms the foundation, enabling real-time identification of 5G-A subscribers and dynamic allocation of high-speed 3CC (three-component carrier) channels. This capability to distinguish and prioritise users creates the measurable performance gap essential for tiered pricing models.

Huawei’s AI-powered intelligent wireless boards provide the system’s intelligence layer. These boards continuously analyse network service patterns, user experience requirements, device characteristics, and available resources within millisecond timeframes, then execute optimal scheduling strategies.

Test measurements from China Mobile Shanghai indicate meaningful improvements: QR code scanning latency dropped 47%, WeChat upload times decreased 25%, live streaming speeds rose 27%, and high-definition video delivery increased 11%. These metrics translate directly into user-perceptible experience differences.

Deployment architecture and scale

The stadium network upgrade involved substantial physical infrastructure expansion. China Mobile Shanghai and Huawei installed 32 additional 2.6 GHz and 4.9 GHz pRRUs (passive remote radio units) throughout lower seating areas, more than doubling total capacity. Each of the seven escalator entrance points received dedicated 4.9 GHz EM devices, eliminating previous coverage gaps.

Operational support scales with demand—over 40 engineers deploy onsite during matches for continuous monitoring and real-time optimisation. This extensive 5G-A Shanghai coverage extends beyond the stadium across the entire area within the city’s Outer Ring Road, five outlying new towns, and 21 metro lines throughout Shanghai.

Observable user impact

The September 21 match provided tangible demonstrations of differentiated service delivery. Fans conducted rapid mobile payments for concessions and merchandise despite venue congestion. Video sharing occurred seamlessly even during peak moments when thousands simultaneously uploaded content.

The ability for users to receive immediate social media engagement—seeing friends’ likes and comments while events unfold—exemplifies the enhanced experiences China Mobile Shanghai anticipates users will value. The September deployment confirmed technical capability; commercial validation awaits subscriber uptake and retention data.

Broader industry considerations

This 5G-A Shanghai implementation poses significant questions for global telecommunications strategy. Carriers universally face challenges justifying 5G and 5G-Advanced capital expenditures through conventional business models. Creating community-aligned, experience-differentiated packages presents an alternative path beyond simple speed-tier pricing.

The initiative also tests whether AI-integrated network infrastructure can enable fundamentally new revenue models. The intelligent wireless boards’ millisecond-level resource allocation decisions make large-scale performance differentiation technically feasible—a prerequisite for experience-based monetisation.

China Mobile Shanghai’s 200,000-fan target provides a concrete metric for assessing commercial viability. As telecommunications providers worldwide seek approaches to monetise expensive network modernisation, this community-focused, experience-tiered model offers an experimental framework—one whose outcomes may inform industry evolution beyond traditional connectivity provision.

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See also: Huawei: 5G & 5G-A help carriers reshape business, infrastructure, and O&M

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Tags: 5G, connectivity, networks, telecoms