During the 31st PT Expo China, the New Calling Industry Development Forum — hosted by China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) and China Association of Communications Enterprises (CACE), and co-hosted by Huawei — was successfully held at the China National Convention Center in Beijing on June 4, 2023. At this forum, Bian Yannan, Deputy General Manager of the Planning and Construction Department of China Mobile, delivered a keynote speech entitled "New Calling Network — Usher in a New Era of Communications". He expounded on China Mobile's exploration, practice, and thinking around New Calling, and disclosed that China Mobile will start the construction of a New Calling network, putting it into commercial use by the end of 2023.
Bian Yannan, Deputy General Manager of Planning and Construction Department of China Mobile, delivering his keynote speech
Positioning New Calling as a Strategic Product to Facilitate People's Lives
Setting it apart from conventional calling services, New Calling provides calling services with new content such as emojis, subtitles, translation, XR, and AI by embedding ultra-HD, intelligent, and interactive capabilities in audio and video networks. This brings fun, real-time, and interactive calling experiences to individuals, governments, and enterprises alike. New Calling drives the shift of future communications toward rich media and high interaction.
China Mobile positions New Calling as a brand-new 5G application and will act as a springboard for a range of calling-based platform products. As Yang Jie, Chairman of China Mobile, noted in an exclusive interview this year, "China Mobile is accelerating the development of New Calling in 2023, to make the video calling experience more interesting for users."
Defining Open VoNR + Network Architecture to Promote the New Calling Industry Ecosystem
The development of New Calling requires a cutting-edge open network. Bian Yannan said that to redefine and upgrade the network architecture for New Calling, China Mobile introduced the New Calling-capable NEs and New Calling media plane. The New Calling-capable NEs serve as the brain of the New Calling network, helping to build a foundation for calling services. And the New Calling media plane is integrated with AI, providing rich media processing capabilities for the network. In addition, data channels are added to the IMS basic network to provide ultra-HD, intelligent, and interactive capabilities for calling services. More importantly, China Mobile opened up New Calling network capabilities to industry partners through standard APIs, allowing developers to flexibly and conveniently innovate calling services, bringing richer service experiences to users, and promoting industry prosperity.
China Mobile is a pioneer in the New Calling industry, actively promoting the commercial maturity of the industry chain in various fields such as New Calling standards, networks, and terminals. China Mobile led the initiation of more than 10 national and international standardization projects alongside standards organizations such as 3GPP and CCSA, and was the first to define the VoNR + target network architecture and typical service processes. Moreover, China Mobile has completed end-to-end field pilot verification covering terminals, networks, services, and operations in Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Guangdong, paving the way for commercial use of New Calling. And together with chip vendors and mainstream terminal vendors in China, China Mobile has completed the infield verification of interactive DC terminals and made the first call on the live network. Such terminals are expected to be put into commercial use at the end of this year.
Recruiting Users for Trial to Realize Commercialization of New Calling on the Entire Network by the End of 2023
At the beginning of this year, China Mobile began to trial New Calling services such as fun calling, calling subtitles, and Chinese-English translation in Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Guangdong. These trials serve as a precursor to trialing the commercial use of New Calling services in pilot provinces in June.
Bian Yannan revealed that China Mobile will start the construction of a New Calling network, putting the network into commercial use by the end of this year to expedite the development of New Calling and take 5G service experiences to new heights.
Finally, Bian Yannan said that China Mobile provides a platform for New Calling service innovation. The entire industry chain — including providers of terminals, chips, networks, and industry applications — needs to work together to promote the New Calling industry. China Mobile hopes to collaborate with industry partners to build a New Calling ecosystem, provide users with a real-time interactive experience anytime, anywhere, and usher in a new era of communications.