At MWC Barcelona 2025, the Broadband Development Congress (BDC), hosted by the World Broadband Association (WBBA), was a resounding success. Themed “Smarter Broadband: Investment. Innovation. Intelligence,” the congress attracted over 200 industry leaders from global industry organizations, standards organizations, government agencies, carriers, and device vendors. Attendees exchanged views on key issues, including the Net5.5G evolution path, network technology innovation, and commercial practices.
In his keynote speech at the congress, Ryan Qiu, Vice President of Huawei’s Data Communication Product Line, noted that the integration of AI into carriers’ strategies is gaining momentum, with Net5.5G serving as a catalyst for the in-depth convergence of networks and AI. To address this trend, Huawei has introduced AI WAN, a cutting-edge solution that comprehensively empowers IP networks in the Net5.5G era using AI. Featuring a three-layer architecture comprising AI routers, AI new connections, and AI new brain, this solution enables carriers to unlock new network value across diverse scenarios, including individual, home, and enterprise settings.
Industry Consensus on Net5.5G: Global Leaders Call for Enhanced Cooperation
At the congress, global industry leaders from organizations such as the WBBA, IPv6 Forum, International Telecommunication Union (ITU-T), and Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) reached a consensus during the “Fireside Chat: Forward-Looking Dialogue on the Evolution of Next-Gen Networks.” Net5.5G has now become an industry-wide consensus, making significant strides in areas including industry development, policy formulation, and commercial practices. The leaders called for enhanced industry collaboration and continued joint efforts to drive the commercial success of Net5.5G, thereby guiding the sustainable development of the Internet industry.
Establishment of Net5.5G Industry Cooperation Mechanism and Phased Progress of Global Pioneer Program
With the advent of the Net5.5G era, the WBBA, IPv6 Forum, ITU-T, IETF, and Network Innovation and Development Alliance (NIDA) have collaborated to establish a next-generation network cooperation mechanism. While the WBBA and IPv6 Forum drive industry consensus, the ITU-T explores future network needs, the IETF spearheads the formulation of network technology standards, and the NIDA defines network construction standards and facilitates technology adoption. This multi-party collaboration marks a new phase of global network upgrades and lays a solid foundation for an intelligent society.
The Global Net5.5G Pioneer Program has made steady progress. At the congress, industry leaders jointly released the latest progress of the program. To date, a number of outstanding Net5.5G pioneers have emerged globally, including 18 visionary pioneers, 2 region pioneers, and 18 business pioneers.
Accelerated Net5.5G Commercial Deployment and Release of Best Practices Whitepaper
Multiple carriers shared their experience and achievements in Net5.5G commercial deployment. As the integrated operator in Spain by user count, MasOrange builds an efficient capacity growth, ultimate experience and intent-based automation Net5.5G converged IP network. 400GE/800GE, SRv6 + slicing meet traffic surging and automatic network scheduling requirements, and supports new services such as edge computing in the future. Based on Network Digital Map, through AI empowerment, MasOrange will stride to AN L4, a new phase of intelligent evolution.Turkcell, a digital carrier in Türkiye, has built a stable, flexible, and experience-centric target network by leveraging key Net5.5G technologies such as 400GE/800GE, SRv6/slicing, and Network Digital Map. This network features ultra-high bandwidth, ultra-low latency, ultra-high reliability, and intelligence, significantly enhancing customer service experience and generating new business value. In addition, the WBBA has released the Net5.5G
Best Practices & Deployment Guide Whitepaper, showcasing global Net5.5G best practices and providing valuable insights and inspiration for the industry.
As Net5.5G continues to evolve, the WBBA urges global industry organizations to strengthen industry cooperation and jointly drive industry innovation in technical standards, policies, and commercial practices to foster a thriving data communications ecosystem.
