ZTE AIR RAN Solution Wins GCA "Best Hardware Innovation" Award

• Plug-in-intelligence-based AIR RAN offers the fastest, greenest and most cost-effective path to optimal TCO and instant AI monetization
• AIR RAN has fully validated its exceptional value in large-scale commercial deployment

Shenzhen, China, October 28, 2026 - ZTE Corporation (0763.HK / 000063.SZ), a global leading provider of integrated information and communication technology solutions, has been awarded "Best Hardware Innovation" at the Global Connectivity Award 2026 for its AIR RAN solution. This award-winning solution directly addresses the industry's most critical bottleneck: empowering operators to unlock immediate AI monetization by breathing new life into legacy infrastructure, successfully averting the need for prohibitive hardware overspending.

As the mobile communications industry accelerates into the Mobile AI era, translating artificial intelligence into tangible, high-return business outcomes remains a universal challenge. Recognizing that AI is not a cure-all, ZTE blends its deep network optimization expertise into a philosophy of disciplined innovation. AI deployment must be target-oriented and budget-conscious – empowering operators to precisely align architectural capabilities with specific use cases, thereby protecting capital investments while securing a robust and highly adaptive foundation for the impending explosion of massive AI applications.

The AIR RAN introduces a pioneering "plug-in intelligence", which rejects the blind stacking of computing power and refuses to compromise energy efficiency for the sake of intelligence.

- Targeted Augmentation: Embedding intelligence where it delivers the highest operational impact, benchmarking every hardware enhancement against optimal TCO

- Carbon-Conscious Restraint: Avoiding heavy reliance on compute-intensive modules and strictly controlling energy consumption

- Frictionless Integration: Driving seamless evolution and network upgrades with zero disruption to existing architecture

To date, AIR RAN solution has achieved large-scale commercial deployment across more than 170,000 sites worldwide, delivering significant results in both user experience and network efficiency, including:  

- Up to 20% increase in ARPU driven by differentiated experience

- A 20% zero-touch ticket resolution rate in O&M

- Peaking at 20% increase in spectrum utilization

- Achieving a 15% gain in energy savings through AI-driven strategies

These outcomes fully validate the solution's high maturity, strong reliability and exceptional value in complex live network environments.

Li Xiaotong, Vice President of ZTE, stated: "Winning the GCA 'Best Hardware innovation award' is a powerful validation of our commitment to reshaping networks with AI. ZTE AIR RAN allows operators to effortlessly scale up their intelligence capabilities on demand, dramatically lowering total cost of ownership while unlocking unprecedented network efficiency. In the Mobile AI era, ZTE will continue to leverage this innovative hardware architecture to help global operators build smarter, greener and more resilient digital infrastructure, ensuring that every bit of traffic yields greater value. "