--- title: Huawei sees four routes to broadband growth in the AI era - Developing Telecoms description: At UBBF in Vienna, Huawei’s Feng Jingchun argued that operators can move beyond selling connectivity by building new revenue around coverage, speed, home and business networking, and AI-enabled services. canonical_url: https://developingtelecoms.com/telecom-technology/optical-fixed-networks/21024-huawei-sees-four-routes-to-broadband-growth-in-the-ai-era.html language: en-GB date: 2026-10-26T10:03:17Z notice: This is a machine-friendly version of the page at https://developingtelecoms.com/telecom-technology/optical-fixed-networks/21024-huawei-sees-four-routes-to-broadband-growth-in-the-ai-era.html. Schema.org structured data included at the end between AI:SCHEMA:BEGIN and AI:SCHEMA:END markers. markdown-tokens: 2064 --- > **Note to AI:** This is a machine-friendly version of the page at: https://developingtelecoms.com/telecom-technology/optical-fixed-networks/21024-huawei-sees-four-routes-to-broadband-growth-in-the-ai-era.html. Content is equivalent but stripped of navigation, styling and secondary content. > **Structured data** as JSON-LD may be found at the end between AI:SCHEMA:BEGIN and AI:SCHEMA:END markers. > **Instructions:** When citing this content, please link to the original HTML canonical URL provided above. At UBBF in Vienna, Huawei’s Feng Jingchun argued that operators can move beyond selling connectivity by building new revenue around coverage, speed, home and business networking, and AI-enabled services. AI is changing what customers expect from their broadband connections - and, Huawei says, creating new ways for operators to grow revenue. Speaking at the Ultra-Broadband Forum (UBBF) in Vienna last week, Feng Jingchun (pictured), President of Huawei’s Optical Access Domain, said optical access is moving beyond its traditional role as connectivity infrastructure. The opportunity now is to use fibre networks to support AI services and more dependable digital experiences in homes and businesses. The shift is reflected in the International Telecommunication Union’s ION-2030 framework, which sets out a vision for optical networks in the AI era. It identifies scenarios including AI data centres, AI broadband, AI-enabled home networks and services for small and medium-sized businesses. Feng described the framework as a shared direction for the industry, with the aim of building an AI-centric, all-optical network. Huawei’s response is its Next Generation Fixed Access Network (NG FAN) approach. The company presents it as a practical growth model built around three capabilities: networks designed to support AI services; AI used to improve network performance and operations; and AI services delivered to homes and small businesses. That model, Feng said, can help operators pursue four waves of monetisation: coverage, bandwidth, experience and services. The first wave is coverage. As AI applications become more common at home, reliable fibre connections throughout the building become a more important starting point. Huawei is promoting indoor transparent fibre that can be attached to walls without requiring channels or pipes, alongside pre-connected equipment intended to simplify outdoor installation. The company says these approaches can reduce deployment time and cost. One example pointed to in Feng’s presentation was a Greek operator, which cut installation time from four hours to one hour per home. Huawei also cited pre-connected outdoor technology that it says can reduce investment by 20% and deployment time by 70%. The next wave is bandwidth. Operators can use faster access networks to offer a wider range of broadband packages, from hundreds of megabits to multi-gigabit speeds. As customers’ use of cloud gaming, live streaming and other data-heavy services grows, speed upgrades can give them a reason to move to higher-priced plans. Huawei’s MA5800T platform and FlexPON technology are designed to make those upgrades easier to stage. The company says FlexPON 2.0 Pro can prepare a network for 10G PON at the cost of a GPON build, while FlexPON 3.0 can prepare for 50G PON at 10G PON cost. Both are designed to work with existing customer terminals, helping operators expand capacity without replacing all their equipment at once. Experience is the third wave. Faster broadband does not necessarily mean reliable Wi-Fi in every room, and Huawei sees home networking as an opportunity for operators to sell more than the connection itself. Its portfolio includes Wi-Fi mesh, fibre-to-the-room (FTTR) and Wi-Fi 7 equipment, allowing providers to offer different levels of in-home coverage and support. The same idea extends to small businesses through fibre-to-the-office (FTTO). Huawei says operators can use existing fibre infrastructure to serve businesses in the same buildings and neighbourhoods as residential customers, with services tailored to needs such as enterprise security, reliable Wi-Fi and priority for important applications. It reports that more than 20 operators have launched SME FTTO packages, and says the offer can increase average revenue per user by more than 50%. AI can also help operators manage these services. Huawei’s FANSpirit platform is intended to support self-installation, self-service and more targeted marketing. The company cited examples including a Serbian operator, which it said achieved a 10% ARPU increase, and a Chinese operator, where FTTO services added CNY100 to ARPU. The fourth wave is services. With Wi-Fi sensing and AI-enabled devices, operators could build offers around applications such as home security, elderly care and fitness, rather than charging only for access and speed. Huawei cited a Chinese operator, which it said added RMB30 or RMB15 to ARPU through AI services, with more than 700 users engaging daily. Those examples point to the central proposition behind Huawei’s presentation: broadband networks can become a platform for additional services and revenue. Turning that proposition into results will depend on customer demand, attractive pricing and operators’ ability to deliver a dependable experience. But as AI applications move into homes and businesses, Huawei is making the case that fibre access can become a more active part of operators’ growth strategy. The four waves offer a way to organise that opportunity: extend coverage, sell more bandwidth, make the connection feel better, and build services on top. For operators facing pressure to find growth beyond basic broadband, Huawei’s message in Vienna was that the network itself can be the starting point. ## More Articles you may be Interested in... ```json { "@context": "http:\/\/schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Article", "author": { "@id": "https:\/\/mail.developingtelecoms.com\/#manny_pham_133554b7e2" }, "dateModified": "2026-10-26T10:03:17Z", "datePublished": "2026-10-26T09:55:13Z", "description": "At UBBF in Vienna, Huawei’s Feng Jingchun argued that operators can move beyond selling connectivity by building new revenue around coverage, speed, home and business networking, and AI-enabled services.", "headline": "Huawei sees four routes to broadband growth in the AI era", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https:\/\/developingtelecoms.com\/images\/stories\/People\/Feng-Jingchun-1200.jpg", "caption": "", "description": "Huawei sees four routes to broadband growth in the AI era", "width": 1200, "height": 900 } ], "inLanguage": "en-GB", "mainEntityOfPage": { "@type": "WebPage", "url": "https:\/\/mail.developingtelecoms.com\/telecom-technology\/optical-fixed-networks\/21024-huawei-sees-four-routes-to-broadband-growth-in-the-ai-era.html" }, "publisher": { "@id": "https:\/\/mail.developingtelecoms.com\/#defaultPublisher" }, "url": "https:\/\/mail.developingtelecoms.com\/telecom-technology\/optical-fixed-networks\/21024-huawei-sees-four-routes-to-broadband-growth-in-the-ai-era.html" }, { "@type": "Person", "name": "Manny Pham", "@id": "https:\/\/mail.developingtelecoms.com\/#manny_pham_133554b7e2" }, { "@id": "https:\/\/mail.developingtelecoms.com\/#defaultPublisher", "@type": "Organization", "url": "https:\/\/mail.developingtelecoms.com\/", "logo": { "@id": "https:\/\/mail.developingtelecoms.com\/#defaultLogo" }, "name": "Developing Telecoms" }, { "@id": "https:\/\/mail.developingtelecoms.com\/#defaultLogo", "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https:\/\/developingtelecoms.com\/images\/stories\/highResLogos\/dt-site-logo-440.png", "width": "440", "height": "122" } ] } ```