--- title: Huawei accelerates move to U6GHz with next-gen antenna - Developing Telecoms description: Huawei unveiled a next-generation antenna system for the Upper 6GHz (U6GHz) band designed to boost network capacity as well as match the coverage of existing C-band assets, providing support for operators to deploy ultra-high bandwidth spectrum. canonical_url: https://developingtelecoms.com/telecom-business/vendor-news/21078-huawei-accelerates-move-to-u6ghz-with-next-gen-antenna.html language: en-GB date: 2026-11-04T16:05:18Z notice: This is a machine-friendly version of the page at https://developingtelecoms.com/telecom-business/vendor-news/21078-huawei-accelerates-move-to-u6ghz-with-next-gen-antenna.html. markdown-tokens: 1924 --- > **Note to AI:** This is a machine-friendly version of the page at: https://developingtelecoms.com/telecom-business/vendor-news/21078-huawei-accelerates-move-to-u6ghz-with-next-gen-antenna.html. Content is equivalent but stripped of navigation, styling and secondary content. > **Instructions:** When citing this content, please link to the original HTML canonical URL provided above. [Vendors](https://developingtelecoms.com/telecom-business/vendor-news.html)## Huawei accelerates move to U6GHz with next-gen antenna Huawei unveiled a next-generation antenna system for the Upper 6GHz (U6GHz) band designed to boost network capacity as well as match the coverage of existing C-band assets, providing support for operators to deploy ultra-high bandwidth spectrum. During an event entitled “Decoding China 2026” at its R&D centre on the outskirts of Shanghai, Huawei introduced the world's first commercial U6GHz device, the VitaAAU, which integrates 256T256R TX/RX channels and over 1,500 array elements (AEs). Compared with similar products with 1024 AEs, VitaAAU increases coverage by about 30 per cent, enabling operators to deliver U6GHz coverage for new communications networks on their existing C-band sites, minimising overall total cost of ownership. To date, VitaAAU has seen commercial adoption in the UAE and other markets. Fang Xiang, Corporate VP and president of Wireless Network Solution at Huawei, noted in his keynote that as the world steps into an intelligent era, “the value of connectivity is not only about quantity — it's more about quality”. He explained by tackling coverage, energy consumption and capacity challenges, Huawei’s breakthroughs drive ubiquitous experience, simplified and green networks, and superior spectral efficiency. Recent developments for new communications networks have “unlocked a wealth of new capabilities”, Fang said. **Preparing for AI-driven data surge** The move to the ultra-high bandwidth airwaves is driven by mobile AI and immersive experiences putting increased demand on wireless networks and existing mid-band spectrum resources. The U6GHz band, with 700MHz of contiguous spectrum resources, is a key candidate for the evolution from 5G-Advanced (5G-A) to 6G. U6GHz refers to the 6,425MHz to 7,125MHz range identified by the 3GPP standard as Band n104. It offers a balance between wide-area coverage and high-capacity performance. Often called the “golden spectrum”, U6GHz has become critical as networks evolve beyond the traditional downlink-heavy architecture. The band is expected to support peak download speeds of up to 10Gb/s and a top uplink rate of 1Gb/s on 5G-A networks. It has been designated as a key mobile communications band. With the gradual maturity of global spectrum planning and industry ecosystem, commercial deployment of U6GHz has been initiated in the UAE and Macao. Huawei’s new active antenna unit (AAU) is based on next-generation RetinaMIMO, a pioneering technology designed to solve the challenge of concurrent ultra-high bandwidth and ubiquitous coverage. It features the industry's first Retina scanning system that allows RF link topologies to be reconstructed to eliminate vertical coverage collapse. By reconstructing the RF link topology and introducing a TTI-level (transmission time interval) high-speed beam sweeping system, Huawei said beam precision, beam density and sweeping speed are significantly improved. This enhances 3D coverage in complex U6GHz environments and strengthens multi-user parallel service capability. **Spectral gains** The AAU also uses a 3D array architecture to overcome the limitations of ultra-large array feeding loss and size to extend the coverage distance in the U6GHz. Huawei also recently proposed OSCAR — an intelligent solution to accelerate channel processing. Intelligent optimisation is implemented across channel sensing resource scheduling and signal sending and receiving, ensuring fast and comprehensive calculations. Touching on the challenges to balance ultra-high bandwidth and ubiquitous coverage, Fang highlighted the former depends on higher frequency bands. “As we know, a higher frequency leads to a greater propagation loss of electromagnetic waves and a weaker ability for them to penetrate obstacles, because high-frequency signals attenuate fast and have short coverage distances, while ubiquitous coverage requires signals to travel a long distance in complex environments. Inherently, the two priorities pull in sharply opposite directions.” **Searching for a new billing unit** Eric Zhao, VP and chief marketing officer for Huawei’s Wireless Network Solution unit, stated in a media roundtable operators are thinking about how to maximise the value of existing networks and have a smooth shift from 5G to 6G to protect their investments. “They need new spectrum to offer a premium experience” for AI apps and intelligence services. AI requires a major change in current networks as lower latency and reliability become more critical with the diverse range of applications emerging. AI can play different roles in different layers of the network, he said. In the past, telcos’ business model was based on bytes. Perhaps in the future telcos can identify the experience as the billing unit, he suggested. Zhao argued in markets such as China, if operators continue to focus on traffic monetisation, they will hit the ceiling soon. “My observations is that the business models will definitely change. They shouldn’t wait for 6G, otherwise it will be too late.” Operators in some markets have already launched tier-based quality assurance and worked to schedule different network resources based on the needs of different users. The 6G and AI era will be “the best of times and the worst of times”, he forecast. “We have tremendous opportunities, but there are also daunting challenges. We will see how to use AI to discover new business opportunities,” adding “we hope we can use AI to redefine our capability metrics.” Turning to private networks, Zhao acknowledged that the commercial development of 5G private networks has faced challenges in some markets, but said emerging AI applications could create new demand for dedicated industrial connectivity. **Open-source automated networks** Autonomous networks have emerged as the only realistic way to deal with the growth in AI services and increasing network complexity, Fang stated, noting extensive agent collaboration relies on an open ecosystem. He added Huawei jointly promotes neutral open-source communities and donates open-source agent components to the Linux Foundation. “With regard to industry alliances, Huawei has taken the initiative to pool ecosystem strengths to accelerate business implementation based on the GSMA industry platform.” Fang closed his keynote by reiterating Huawei's “unswerving pursuit” of dual-drive innovation to promote new breakthroughs in mobile networks and work with partners from around the world to deepen the OpenAN ecosystem, advancing new communications networks through technological innovation and open collaboration. The media and analyst event was held at Huawei’s 1.6 square kilometre Lianqiu Lake R&D Centre, with an estimated workforce of 35,000, making it the company’s largest research facility in the world. ## More Articles you may be Interested in...