Jakarta, INTI - The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) is expected to reshape the business model of the telecommunications industry, enabling operators to move beyond traditional connectivity services and unlock new revenue streams through AI token monetization.
AI token monetization refers to a business model in which companies charge users based on the number of AI tokens, units of text processed by large language models such as OpenAI's GPT or Google's Gemini, consumed when using AI-powered services.
"AI has become a new productivity driver, fueling rapid growth in token consumption," said Eric Yang, President of Huawei Carrier Business, during his presentation at Mobile World Congress (MWC) Shanghai.
According to Huawei, telecom operators are well positioned to capitalize on this opportunity thanks to their extensive customer bases and established network infrastructure.
By integrating AI into their services, operators can evolve beyond providing voice and internet connectivity to offering intelligent, personalized digital experiences. AI will enable smart devices to communicate and coordinate automatically, allowing users to benefit from more personalized services ranging from smart home management to AI-powered virtual assistants.
Huawei also envisions conventional voice and data services evolving into AI-based communication assistants capable of supporting users in their daily activities, while enabling operators to deliver more proactive and customized services.
Building Infrastructure for AI Token Monetization
To capture the opportunities created by AI token monetization, Huawei believes telecom operators must significantly strengthen both computing and network infrastructure to support AI applications at scale.
The company outlined five key infrastructure priorities.
First, communication networks must support real-time interactions between humans and AI through higher uplink capacity, greater network reliability, and near-seamless handovers.
Second, operators should build advanced computing networks capable of efficiently sharing computing resources across regions while ensuring low latency, lossless data transmission, and enhanced data security.
Third, Huawei advocates developing next-generation computing foundations based on a supernode architecture that tightly integrates computing, networking, and storage to deliver higher performance with greater efficiency.
Fourth, AI-ready data centers should be designed to improve energy efficiency by using AI to optimize power consumption while enabling smarter operations and maintenance.
Finally, Huawei introduced an AI model service platform that enables operators to deploy, manage, optimize, and operate AI models at scale, making AI token monetization more efficient and commercially viable.
AI-Centric Networks to Support Future Telecom Services
During MWC Shanghai 2026, Huawei unveiled a series of innovations covering both telecom services and infrastructure.
Working with China's three largest telecom operators, the company introduced new technologies and business models built around 5G-Advanced (5G-A), featuring high-speed uplink capabilities, experience-based monetization, AI-driven business services, and AI token monetization.
On the infrastructure side, Huawei launched its AI-Centric Target Network, a next-generation network architecture designed to help telecom operators strengthen their competitiveness by monetizing both network traffic ("bytes") and AI services ("tokens").
As part of this architecture, traditional traffic-centric networking evolves into AI-centric connectivity capable of supporting real-time interactions with guaranteed service quality.
The network combines high-speed uplink and downlink capabilities with advanced quality-of-service technologies to deliver reliable, high-performance connectivity for the AI era.
Huawei believes that as AI adoption accelerates worldwide, telecom operators that invest in intelligent networks and computing infrastructure will be better positioned to transform connectivity into value-added AI services, opening new business opportunities beyond conventional telecommunications.
Conclusion
As AI adoption accelerates, Huawei believes the telecommunications industry is entering a new phase where revenue growth will extend beyond traditional connectivity. By investing in AI-ready networks, computing infrastructure, and token monetization capabilities, telecom operators can deliver intelligent services, enhance customer experiences, and unlock new digital business opportunities in the AI era.
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