China’s 5G-Advanced rollout sets stage for AI-native 6G

China’s 5G-Advanced rollout has reached more than 330 cities, according to figures from the GSMA’s The Mobile Economy China 2026 report.

Figures from the GSMA’s The Mobile Economy China 2026 report, cited by RCR Wireless News, showed that mainland China’s 5G-Advanced coverage had reached more than 330 cities by the end of 2025. The number of 5G-Advanced users had passed 10 million by mid-2025.

The report also said 5G accounted for 55% of China’s mobile connections by the end of 2025. Major operators, including China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom, have launched commercial 5G-Advanced services in mainland China, while operators in Hong Kong and Macau have also moved into the market.

China Telecom Shanghai has also launched what the GSMA described as China’s first commercial “5G-Advanced × AI massive-uplink network.” The deployment includes more than 5,000 upgraded sites, peak uplink speeds of 1Gbps, and continuous 20Mbps uplink coverage in key urban areas.

Ericsson’s Mobility Report has also pointed to higher uplink demand from AI, cloud, and mobile services. The report said connected devices are expected to send more data to cloud platforms, with enterprise and industry examples including AI-enabled IoT devices, autonomous vehicles, humanoid droids, drones, and 5G-native laptops.

5G-Advanced moves beyond speed

The GSMA report said operators are using 5G-Advanced in locations such as stadiums, tourism sites, transport hubs, and live event venues. The report linked those deployments to enhanced uplink capabilities, differentiated packages, and new monetisation models.

5G Americas describes 5G-Advanced as part of the technical path toward 6G. Its white paper describes 5G-Advanced, based on 3GPP Release 18 and later releases, as an extension of 5G Standalone that brings in AI and machine learning, XR, improved energy efficiency, and low-latency capabilities.

The GSMA report said China’s next stage of 5G development will involve a wider range of connected devices and traffic types. These include wearables, industrial cameras, connected vehicles, drones, and asset-tracking devices.

Nokia has linked 5G-Advanced positioning and RedCap capabilities to enterprise uses such as asset tracking, industrial automation, logistics, automotive, and public safety.

The GSMA also cited examples of more dynamic resource allocation under 5G-Advanced. These include China Mobile’s premium service packages for high-density events, joint resource orchestration work by China Telecom and China Unicom across shared infrastructure, and AI-based network allocation initiatives by China Telecom and ZTE.

GSMA Intelligence has said operators investing in 5G Standalone and 5G-Advanced are increasingly focusing on experience-based consumer propositions, including differentiated services and service assurance, with AI and core network intelligence used to optimise network performance.

The GSMA report also placed mobile technologies and services at 7.2% of China’s GDP in 2025, equivalent to $1.5 trillion. It forecast the mobile sector’s contribution to reach $2.1 trillion by 2030, with a compound annual growth rate of 7%.

At the opening keynote of MWC Shanghai 2026, Zhong Zhihong, chief engineer at China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said China would continue building next-generation digital infrastructure while advancing 6G research.

Zhong said China needed to plan and develop new communication and computing networks, including an evolution from dual gigabit networks to dual 10-gigabit networks. He also pointed to continued work on 6G core technologies, standards development, and related industrial ecosystems.

The MIIT official also linked communications infrastructure with AI adoption across different sectors. He said large language models should be better integrated with fields such as agriculture, education, and healthcare.

China Telecom outlines AI-native 6G

Yue Wang, chief technologist at China Telecom, said future AI-native 6G networks will require closer coordination between networking and computing resources.

Speaking during RCRTech’s Telco AI Forum, Wang said current telecom systems are still largely based on deterministic architectures. She said these systems rely on predefined interfaces, rules-based logic, and control mechanisms designed by engineers.

Wang said AI-native networks should be viewed across three layers: infrastructure, operations, and services. The infrastructure layer covers network, compute, storage, and AI resources; the operational layer handles optimisation and orchestration; and the service layer supports AI-based services.

According to Wang, future AI services will need more than connectivity. They will also require compute resources and latency adaptation to be managed alongside the network.

Wang said adding AI capabilities to existing systems has limits because current networks were not designed around AI workflows. She said current networks were not built for AI-ready data, closed-loop control, AI lifecycle management, or real-time decision-making.

She said the industry needs the ability to orchestrate network and compute resources together to support new AI services.

The 5G-Advanced examples cited by the GSMA include stronger uplink performance, dynamic network resource management, and support for a wider mix of device categories. Wang’s 6G comments focused on the joint management of connectivity, compute, data, intelligence, and assurance capabilities.

Wang also said the transition will require changes from both the telecom and AI sectors. AI systems must meet telecom requirements because live carrier networks are critical infrastructure and cannot rely on uncontrolled decisions.

At the same time, she said telecom architectures need enough flexibility to benefit from AI-driven operations. That includes making AI reliable enough for telecom environments while allowing network systems to support more adaptive control.

Physical AI systems, including robotics and industrial automation, were among the future applications Wang identified as important for AI-native 6G. She said one of the first capabilities required for 6G networks would be the joint orchestration of communications and computing.

Wang said progress toward AI-native 6G would depend on whether networks can expose and orchestrate communication, compute, data, intelligence, and assurance capabilities together for customers.

Operators still face 5G returns challenge

GlobalData’s Hrushikesh Mahananda told RCR Wireless News that China remains the world’s largest 5G market, but mobile services revenue growth is expected to remain moderate because of structural and competitive pressures.

Mahananda said price competition, market saturation, and regulatory pressure to keep connectivity affordable continue to affect average revenue per user. Operators are therefore placing more focus on enterprise 5G applications and industrial digitalisation.

Chinese carriers are also expanding into private 5G networks, cloud computing, edge services, and AI-enabled platforms. According to Mahananda, industry-specific 5G applications in manufacturing, mining, ports, healthcare, and transport provide clearer enterprise use cases for capabilities such as low latency and network slicing.

(Photo by Kido Dong)

See also: TM Forum: Telecom operators unprepared for AI safety regulations

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