Huawei's 'One City One Network' redefining urban management

Picture a city where traffic, housing shortages, waste management, pollution control, and crime prevention are seamlessly monitored and managed from one screen.

This once-futuristic vision is now a reality, thanks to Huawei's groundbreaking "One City One Network" solution. The solution integrates various city services into an all-in-one smart landscape, offering residents and city officials a comprehensive approach to urban management.

Photo: Courtesy

Key features include one map for the entire city, a single number for all city services, one-click for complete visibility, a unified structure for operations, and a platform for innovation and entrepreneurship.

Huawei's "One City One Network" aims to provide seamless, efficient, and scalable solutions for smarter cities, ultimately enhancing the quality of life for urban residents while promoting sustainable and intelligent city management.

During a recent visit to Huawei's Executive Exhibition Center in Beijing, a delegation of Bangladeshi journalists, including this correspondent from The Business Standard, explored the intricacies of this cutting-edge technology.

The Chinese tech giant has harnessed artificial intelligence to unify urban management systems, showcasing how advanced technology can redefine urban living, making communities safer, more efficient, and more sustainable.

By analysing real-time data from street-level devices, residential zones, citizens, and stakeholders, Huawei's Smart City solution revolutionises urban operations.

This platform, already implemented in nearly 700 cities globally, offers intelligent computing, analytics, and digital services across various government departments. Among its features are intelligent video analysis, real-time mapping, and quick resolution of public grievances.

A Huawei spokesperson highlighted that the system dramatically reduces response times for citizen complaints, citing a Chinese city where complaints are addressed in just 50 seconds—a significant improvement from the previous average of four minutes.

To ensure its effectiveness over time, the spokesperson stressed the importance of a robust operation-supporting service system to manage the city's systems and enable innovative applications of the technology.

At Huawei's next-gen smart city solutions showcase in Spain this year, Zhou Hongquan, COO of Government Public Services Digitalisation BU, emphasised the benefits for city managers, improving operational efficiency, enhancing residents' quality of life, and supporting the sustainable development of smart cities.

He noted Huawei's commitment to partnering with global allies to build new digital infrastructures for efficient city governance and accelerated urban intelligence.

 Digital transformation in global finance, education sectors

Huawei is driving digital transformation across industries, playing a key role in global finance and education.

In China, the rapid shift to mobile payments since 2011, with 86% of transactions now done via mobile, shows the success of digital banking. Chinese banks have fully adopted cloud and data-driven strategies, offering valuable lessons for banks worldwide.

With 13 years of experience in the financial sector, Huawei has supported over 3,600 financial clients, including 53 of the top 100 global banks.

The company has moved from All IP to All Cloud and now to All Intelligence, offering innovative solutions that improve resilience, agility, and intelligence in financial services. Recognised as a leader in Gartner's Magic Quadrant, Huawei is praised for its expertise and approach to digital transformation.

In education, Huawei has impacted over 80 countries, collaborating with more than 2,800 universities and benefiting over 500,000 primary and secondary schools through ICT solutions. This has helped shape the future of intelligent, digital education worldwide.

 Strategic shift fuels global expansion

A presentation by a Huawei executive explained how the company expanded its business to reach the global market. Huawei shifted its focus from smartphones to areas like ICT infrastructure, new energy, automotive solutions, cloud services, digital financial solutions, and carbon reduction efforts.

In 2023, Huawei invested 23.4% of its revenue in research and innovation, the highest in 36 years. This demonstrates the company's commitment to supporting long-term growth.

With 55% of its workforce dedicated to R&D (research and development), the company's consumer business now contributes 35.7% of total revenue, down from 54.4% in 2019. Meanwhile, its ICT infrastructure and other new business areas now account for 60% of revenue.

Huawei is also making progress in cloud network services, which saw a 17.3% revenue growth in 2023. The company remains the leader in global 5G networks, covering 46% of the world's 5G infrastructure. Additionally, Huawei's growth in smart household solutions and solar power systems reflects its commitment to sustainable energy.

Despite facing challenges, Huawei continues to succeed by prioritising innovation and expanding into new business sectors, positioning itself as a key player in global technology markets.

Huawei's 15-year partnership drives innovation in Bangladesh's key sectors

For over 15 years, Huawei has played a vital role in advancing technology and energy in Bangladesh. Recently, the company teamed up with local brand Walton to produce lithium batteries for telecom base transceiver stations (BTS), offering technical support, design expertise, and materials to enhance local production capacity.

Huawei also led the development of Bangladesh's first e-government cloud, providing cloud services to more than 50 companies.

In education, it partnered with the Bangladesh Research and Education Network (BdREN) to introduce advanced technologies, including AI, high-performance computing, and cloud services, to local institutions.

In transportation, Huawei's "Smart Highway" project on the Dhaka-Chattogram corridor uses intelligent systems like license plate recognition and real-time alerts to police control rooms, improving safety and monitoring. Huawei's ongoing contributions are helping create a fully connected and intelligent Bangladesh.