MWC Shanghai 2025 spotlights China's adoption of 5G-Advanced tech to spur industrial innovation

China’s leading companies are embracing 5G-Advanced technology to drive growth across critical sectors, entrepreneurs shared at the MWC (Mobile World Congress) Shanghai 2025, which opened Wednesday.

5G-Advanced technology or 5G-A serves as a bridge between 5G and 6G, offering higher speeds, lower latency, and enhanced connectivity.

At the MWC Shanghai, which runs until Friday, 5G-A has become a central topic, with entrepreneurs from top Chinese firms emphasizing how its accelerated deployment is driving breakthroughs in communication, connectivity, and industrial upgrades.

"We widely applied 40 technologies like 5G, AI, digital twins, and photovoltaic power generation," said Zhang Xiaoyu, executive vice president of the automaker.

Eric Xu, deputy and rotating chairman of China’s tech giant Huawei, highlighted that 5G-A offers mobile operators a competitive edge in the global market, with its growing applications across emerging sectors creating significant business opportunities.

"We are well aware that operators from different countries face different environments and they compete under different conditions, which are also always changing. Huawei has come a long way from our operator business," said Xu.

Researchers also anticipate 5G-A driving advancements across more industries and fueling technological innovation.

"For example, AI, low-altitude economy, intelligentization, real-time communication, internet in vehicles, and other new application scenarios that you have never thought of all need support of 5G-A technology," said Mo Jianhua, associate professor at the School of Information Science and Electronic Engineering of Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

MWC Shanghai 2025 spotlights China's adoption of 5G-Advanced tech to spur industrial innovation

Digital payment remained a key focus of the 3i Africa Summit, which concluded last Friday in Accra, Ghana, after three days showcasing newly developed products in the field.

Africa is now home to some of the world's fastest-growing fintech markets. Digital lending platforms, mobile money services, and online payment systems are expanding rapidly, helping more people and businesses access financial services.

During the three-day summit themed "The Next Frontier: Shaping Africa's Integrated FinTech Future", a range of digital payment platforms were on display, including iSmart Pay, a platform developed just one year ago to help businesses receive and manage payments.

According to Afif Ibrahim, a software developer and exhibitor for the platform, part of its draw lies in diverse payment options.

"There are three ways you can do transactions. You can do it through mobile money, you can do it through your bank or you can do it through what we call the iSmart Pay wallet," he said.

Ibrahim believes innovation is no longer just about creating apps, but about building financial systems that can connect economies across the continent.

"A lot of people ask about cross-border payments and I think that's something a lot of payment platforms that are not already doing that should look into," said the developer.

Digital payment is already transforming daily operations for many businesses in Ghana. Small enterprises can now reach customers online, access digital loans, and receive payments instantly, services that were once difficult to access through traditional banking systems.

Digital payment remains key focus of 3i Africa Summit