ZTE is committed to becoming a road builder of the digital economy, deploying leading commercial 5G Messaging networks for operators, and cultivating a new 5G Messaging ecosystem with global industry chain partners. On the eve of 2021’s Asia-Pacific 5G Messaging Application Conference, ZTE’s Vice President Wang Quan was interviewed to explain the vendor’s development achievements and future plans in the 5G Messaging field.
01 Driving the digital economy and building leading commercial 5G Messaging networks
"ZTE is positioned as a road builder of digital economy. In the 5G Messaging field, as a platform provider, ZTE has always been focusing on operators to build the widest and fastest last-mile messaging channel for users. As a world-leading 5G Messaging platform provider, ZTE has been working in the RCS field for many years. With the largest market share across the three major operators in China, ZTE has helped them build 5G Messaging platforms and laid a solid foundation for commercial use", said Wang.
5G Messaging is a competitive product of ZTE Cloud Core Network. Wang emphasized that: "ZTE Cloud Core Network provides operators with end-to-end 5G telecom cloud solutions, covering a full range of products such as ICT integration hardware, cloud platforms, cloud applications, MANO, and cloud integration, facilitating 5G commercialization and building a new 5G ecosystem."
02 Promoting the development of the 5G Messaging industry to build a new 5G Messaging ecosystem
"In addition to being a key platform provider, as a major promoter and practitioner of China's 5G Messaging ecosystem, ZTE has released Openlab2.0 and terminal full-coverage solutions to fully promote 5G Messaging industry development in application ecosystem construction and terminal coverage," said Wang.
At the beginning of 2021, ZTE released Openlab2.0. In terms of Chatbot Service Provider (CSP) certification, ZTE has issued certificates to seven CSPs, offering suggestions for upgrading CSP in respect of technology, operation and training. In addition, together with CAICT, ZTE has set up an information and communication technology innovation lab based on Openlab2.0 and CTTL-Terminals, and released the first 5G Messaging platform technical requirements, test standards and evaluation system in China in order to promote the high-quality development of 5G Messaging. In terms of business incubation, Openlab2.0 has been further upgraded in incubation scale and industry coverage. More than 150 5G Messaging applications have been incubated, including finance, government affairs, tourism, smart homes, and more.
"A terminal is a user. Users are the traffic base for the development of 5G Messaging services. Developing and retaining users is the basis for the success of the 5G Messaging ecosystem. Therefore, the support of terminal manufacturers is critical to the development of 5G Messaging" explained Wang. ZTE has launched a full-coverage solution for 5G Messaging terminals to support operators. ZTE is the first Chinese mobile phone manufacturer that fully supports 5G Messaging functions in the channel version and the public version, and has launched 10 models of 5G Messaging terminals. All of ZTE’s 5G mobile phone series launched in China this year support 5G Messaging terminals, and in terms of platforms, ZTE fully supports the 5G Messaging fallback solution, which has been verified in operators’ existing networks.
03 Releasing a global collaboration plan devoted to the global development of 5G Messaging
ZTE is committed to providing innovative technology, products and solutions for global telecom operators, industry customers, and consumers. To promote the development of global 5G messaging, ZTE has formulated a global cooperation plan for 5G messaging. At the end of 2020, ZTE and Omdia released the White Paper “5G Messaging Poised to Deliver Ecosystem Innovation.” In 2021, ZTE will work with the GSMA and global industry chain partners to jointly release related White Papers on 5G Messaging.
As an important part of the global cooperation plan, ZTE has launched the "0 CAPEX Trial" plan for global operators. Operators and brands can choose to access the 5G Messaging public cloud platform nearby. According to operators' deployment requirements in the future, ZTE will collaborate with partners to deploy the one-stop 5G Messaging solutions, including the 5G Messaging platform, HUB center and third-party CSP platform, in the public cloud in Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Europe, providing operators with "0 CAPEX," fast onboarding and interconnected 5G Messaging services.
"5G Messaging is a basic mode for global communications, which should be developed worldwide. ZTE looks forward to working with industry chain partners to create a new global 5G Messaging ecosystem," said Wang.
04 With the reshaped application distribution pattern, the industry chain is going to take off
5G Messaging takes ToB as the core. Operators will establish a new chatbot application distribution market and reshape the current application distribution pattern focusing on APP. “Although APPs are widely used in many high-frequency services such as social, entertainment, and e-commerce, the inclusive, secure, and convenient features of 5G messages will bring natural advantages to enterprise service aggregation and distribution, message push and interaction”, explained Wang. "For example, some low-frequency services, such as water/electricity/gas payment, traffic violation handling, bank services and tax services are used only once monthly or even yearly. The user does not need to install the corresponding app - they can complete the entire service process through 5G Messaging in 3~5 steps. 5G Messaging is the most convenient information service for users. For governments, enterprises, and businesses, it can greatly reduce development, promotion, and maintenance costs of APPs and improve economic and social benefits.”
5G Messaging creates new opportunities for the industry chain upstream and downstream. Operators, terminal vendors, platform vendors, service providers, and industry customers, are all accelerating the deployment and commercialization of 5G Messaging. Moreover, the combination of 5G Messaging and AI, big data, location, payment, search, and other operators and third-party ICT capabilities will bring huge innovation to the market. Upstream and downstream partners in the industry chain will also benefit from this integration and share the trillion-level market space.
Finally, Wang suggested that 5G Messaging should absorb external ecological partners from a variety of industries, continuously expand capability boundaries, keep innovating in application scenarios, and comprehensively improve the service experience from "available" and "easy to use" to "willing to use."
