At MWC 2026, ZTE not only showcased innovations across four core areas—from infrastructure to personal terminals—with "full-stack AI" as its core, but also officially launched "AIR MAX," a mobile network solution tailored for the AI era. ZTE executives stated at the launch event that the mobile communications industry is rapidly transitioning from the traditional "data era" to a new "Bit + Token" era. Future telecom operators that only focus on "selling data traffic" will miss out on enormous AI monetization opportunities.
ZTE showcases its "full-stack AI" capabilities, covering all four major areas.
In the core exhibition area, ZTE, with "All in AI, AI for All" as its strategic theme, divided the area into four major AI exhibition zones:
• AI Agentic Connectivity:提出從光纖化、全光網到「AI光網」的三階段演進。現場同時展示業界首個在U6G頻段搭載超過2000個天線陣列的GigaMIMO 6G原型機，號稱容量比5G-Advanced 提升10倍。
• AI Cloud Computing Power:Addressing the energy consumption pain points of data centers, the company showcased the Elastic AIDC solution, which combines cold plate liquid cooling with 800V high-voltage direct current (HVDC), achieving an overall energy efficiency improvement of up to 25%. They also announced the SuperPOD flexible expansion architecture, which supports up to 128 GPUs per rack.
• AI Smart Home (AI Home):In addition to its highly competitive 5G FWA router, ZTE also unveiled the world's first commercial Wi-Fi 8 CPE, officially announcing that home networks are moving towards the true 10G era.
• Smart Personal Terminal:The exhibition showcased the "nubia M153 Technical Preview," which was recently launched in China. Its main feature is the system-level integration of ByteDance's "Doubao" AI assistant, enabling seamless task execution across apps.
Highlight: AIR MAX solutions reshape the value of mobile networks
ZTE's real highlight at MWC 2026 was the official launch of the AIR MAX solution.
Tang Xue, General Manager of Wireless and Computing Product Strategy and Architecture at ZTE, explained that last year's AIR solution focused on network performance, while this year's AIR MAX shifts the focus to "business value." This solution is built on 10 full-stack AI capability blocks, maximizing telecom operators' "energy efficiency," "labor efficiency," and "investment efficiency." These comprise three core layers:
• AI-native infrastructure:This is a revolution at the hardware level. ZTE deeply embeds AI into its wireless radio frequency equipment (AI Radio), using AI algorithms for beam optimization and digital predistortion (DPD), claiming to reduce power consumption by 35-40% compared to traditional power amplifiers, while improving spectral efficiency by 20%.
• Level 4 Autonomous Operations:Through the collaborative efforts of a "general large model + specialized small model," the network system can achieve a 92% accuracy rate in autonomous decision-making. Combining "Co-Claw" digital staff and multi-agent collaboration, the daily maintenance of telecommunications data centers will be able to achieve near-unmanned closed-loop operation in the future, significantly reducing labor costs.
• Monetization Engine:This is the aspect that telecom operators care about most. AIR MAX helps operators shift from "selling data traffic" to "selling experiences" (such as first-class low-latency dedicated networks). Furthermore, through the advantages of distributed computing and real-time data, operators can transform into "AI service providers," offering affordable token services and establishing a secure AI ecosystem hub.
