Arthur Goldstuck | CEO | World Wide Worx | Editor-in-Chief | Gadget.co.za | mail me |
Networks that were once little more than pipes are waking up as they prepare for the Artificial Intelligence (AI) token economy.
The mobile phone in your pocket is about to get a lot smarter. That is only partly because AI apps will become the new default for search, travel and shopping. However, something bigger is coming. The network itself is waking up.
At Mobile World Congress Shanghai 2026, held recently in the futuristic Chinese city, a future was described where mobile networks move beyond simply moving data. For the four decades that the mobile telecoms sector has existed, operators treated the network as little more than a pipe. Consequently, the industry focused on one thing: speed. Now, speed will become only one of several enablers of what comes next.
With each generation, we have pushed the limits of spectral efficiency and performance. Network architecture has gradually flattened, with new application scenarios and services emerging left and right. This has consistently expanded the boundaries of communications. It has also helped carriers translate network capabilities into commercial value.
– David Wang, Rotating Chairman at Huawei
AI is changing the role of mobile networks
The pressure is growing to deliver the complex network architecture that the explosion of AI applications demands. Leading carriers around the world are moving fast to explore commercial high-uplink services. They are using various capabilities to guarantee peak speeds, latency and universal uplink speeds.
The boom in AI agents is expected to drive rapid growth in token services. These services represent the currency of the AI economy. Tokens are the atoms of AI. Every query and response consumes tokens, while complex processes use exponentially more.
Global token usage had jumped from 114 trillion a day in 2024 to 400 trillion in 2026. China’s growth has been equally dramatic. According to the National Data Bureau, China’s token market grew from 0.1 trillion daily token calls to 140 trillion a day in March 2026. As a result, China has become the world’s largest token user.
– Wang Chao, Chief Marketing Officer at WhaleCloud
Smarter infrastructure will power the token economy
Volume is both the strength and the weakness of tokens. As usage rises, costs also increase. Therefore, operators have a strong incentive to build greater network efficiency that can support the token economy more effectively.
Telcos must provide highly reliable, high-quality connectivity to power the AI era. We hope that we can build this infrastructure and embrace the new era of AI.
– Jiangang Tong, Director of Core Network Technology Research at China Telecom
At the summit, it was indicated that Huawei’s AI architecture would halve the token use required for specific agentic activities.
In the token monetisation era, high uplink is a key capability of carriers’ network infrastructure.
– Richard Liu, President of ICT Marketing and Solution Sales at Huawei
At its MWC stand, Huawei showcased this capability during a live trial with China Mobile Hubei. The company ran the trial on a computing cluster called the Ascend A3 SuperPoD. Huawei developed Ascend as its home-grown alternative to Nvidia’s AI chips after US restrictions cut the company off from chip supplies. The SuperPoD connects thousands of Ascend chips together so they can compete at scale.
Self-running mobile networks are becoming a reality
The trial delivered spectacular results. It increased AI response speeds by up to 93%. It also boosted token throughput by as much as 372% during the long, multi-turn conversations that consume the greatest number of tokens.
Huawei competitor ZTE reinforced the focus on tokens and AI infrastructure at its stand. The company demonstrated a system that packs 128 AI processors into a single cabinet. It can also scale to 16,000 processors.
The telecom industry is now racing towards what it calls Level-4 autonomous networks. This marks the fourth stage on a five-level maturity scale that measures how much control AI has over network operations. At this level, AI begins to operate self-running mobile networks with minimal human intervention. The industry believes self-running mobile networks will become essential for managing increasingly complex AI workloads.
In conclusion
Huawei hopes to continue leading the innovative application of AI-native technologies to autonomous networks. The company has also been developing domain-specific intelligence to lay the groundwork for Level-4 autonomous networks.
This year, Huawei will work with carriers to implement domain-specific intelligence across multiple domains, including wireless and transmission networks, in key regions. This synergy will improve maintenance, optimisation, energy efficiency and user experience across networks. As a result, carriers will enhance both network quality and operational efficiency.
It will also enable them to deliver differentiated products for scenarios such as high-speed rail, event venues and campuses. Ultimately, these advances will create new network momentum and accelerate the arrival of self-running mobile networks.