PARTNER CONTENT: Digital road to the Ecosystem is the theme for this 5G Summit and User Congress 2021 hosted by ZTE where our SVP Mr Zhang Jian Peng sits down to answer a few question entailing the digital ecosystem and show ZTE has aided the industry partners to accelerate the digital transformation.

How is ZTE driving of digital economy in the 5G era?

In today’s digital information era, digital transformation is the key for enterprises to improve their competitiveness, while 5G has become the driving force for digital transformation due to its Internet of Everything (IoE) nature. ZTE began in 1985 with the first switch product in 1986 followed by the SDR products ready by 2009. Being the pioneers of Massive MIMO we were awarded recognition in MWC for its innovations and now being the one of the industry key players providing end to end 5G solution ZTE is accelerating the digital transformation

For 36 years, we have been staying true to our original aspiration, and striving to connect “individuals, families, enterprises, and society” with ceaseless efforts and innovation. We are determined to fulfill our vision and mission, that is, “to enable connectivity and trust everywhere,” and “to connect the world with continuous innovation for a better future.” In addition, we are committed to sustainable development with green technology. With our digital solutions, we aim to be on the “Digital road to ecosystem”, providing efficient and reliable digital infrastructure.

How is ZTE’s digital transformation practice in the uncertainty of the new normal?

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the global changes such as work from home, social distancing, the need for higher bandwidth and continuous coverage to enable the new normal, provided us numerous opportunities in addition to the existing challenges. In order to tackle these uncertainties, ZTE has to be resilient in its approach which will allow the company to adapt to the unanticipated changes. In order to create a resilient organization, digital transformation is paramount which is also the basis of the operational quality and efficiency of the company. In terms of in-house office work, we have Pocket ZTE, a smartphone app that enables mobile office and guarantees business continuity. At the beginning of 2020, our self-developed office cloud and R&D cloud allowed over 30,000 employees to work from home, achieving 95% work efficiency on the first workday. Today, we will get ready for complete telecommuting in several hours with our digital platforms, while maintaining the same efficiency as working at office. In supply chain, we have developed new networks, models, and platforms through business process reengineering and IT system restructuring. In addition, we have put our business online and achieved intelligent management of key business through big data and AI, which displays demand-supply changes and risks in real time. Tackling the challenges posed by the pandemic, we swiftly established online channels for visiting, demonstration, exhibition, and testing, ensuring smooth communication with customers. ZTE will continue to deepen the digital transformation to enhance our efficiency in operation, R&D, production, and external business. 

In your opinion, what are some of the innovation brought by ZTE lately and what is the relationship between 5G and digital transformation?

The greatest value of 5G lies in vertical industry applications. We are leading the ecosystem to empower traditional industries around the world, creating new value through digital and intelligent applications. Serving the fight against covid-19 pandemic and resumption of work and production, we have launched a complete set of health management and telemedicine solutions. The 5G Stand-alone network we built for Austria Hutchison, in addition to providing subscribers with the ultimate experience, has also become an enabling platform for different industries. Relying on network slicing and edge computing solutions, smart agriculture, industry 4.0, and smart building systems are deployed, solved industry pain points and precisely empower the industry customers. With our Italian partner, we jointly released the structure health monitoring called Hearth Earth, which is a revolutionary innovation in the monitoring earthquake shockwaves. We can’t achieve this without the support of our customers and partners. We will continue to invest in innovation to benefit our customers. We also have series of exciting new technologies. Through using of new materials and structure, Wireless networks using Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface technology (RIS) will achieve low cost and low energy consumption, while significantly increasing network coverage and capacity, which will help future networks achieve full-band connectivity and get ready for 6G. We have now completed prototype and field tests. AAU devices with new micro-wing cooling technology are smaller in size, flexible in installation, 5-10 times more efficient in heat dissipation, can work longer in harsh environments and provide reliable 5G connection. Optical network equipment revolutionizes all-optical internal connection, creating true pure-optical processing devices that further enhance the bandwidth and latency of 5G bearer networks. These new technologies will help to bridge the digital divide and connect the world.

What is the value of an ecosystem and how is ZTE playing a part in this?

Rainforests are the most stable and robust ecosystems on this planet. Striving for stronger core competence and high-quality growth in the 5G era, ZTE expects to build a rainforest-like ecosystem with all partners in the industry for shared success.

The industry and ecosystem require more professional coordination when facing up to business uncertainties. ZTE is committed to building a digital and intelligent ecosystem based on open underlying capabilities and more efficient collaboration, to achieve win-win with all partners. As a faithful driver of the digital economy, ZTE is committed to tackling the toughest challenges to power the world with core 5G capability. In the application of 5G industry, ZTE has worked with more than 500 partners to carry out 5G application innovation and commercial practice, realizing nearly 100 application scenarios in 15 different verticals. We demonstrated the 5G industry solutions jointly created by our partners, including integrated solutions for industrial manufacturing, energy, transportation, new media, education, digital transformation to name a few.