ZTE chief sees 5G driving network simplification

As network architecture has become increasingly complicated, there has been a strong push to make operations more efficient, he said.

“Labour costs have gone up, and operators are now more sensitive to opex rather than capex.”

Xu insisted that by simplifying networks and making them more open, operators will be able to lower costs, which will put them in a better position to adopt to new business models.

“We dream one day networks can run automatically without human intervention. The most important thing is to make the network easier to use.”

He said that over the last decade, operators’ bottom-line has been squeezed, with network investment rising three- to four-times.

He hailed the global cooperation among the many partners which has created a mature 5G ecosystem.