Looking back at 2024, the construction of 5G and gigabit optical networks is coming to an end, and user needs are being met. At the same time, the promotion progress of some new technologies is not as expected, and the basic technology theory still needs to break through bottlenecks. Looking ahead to 2025, AI has brought significant development opportunities to the information and communication industry. Whether on the cloud or end side, AI has put forward higher requirements for communication capabilities, which is expected to inject new development momentum into the industry. In addition to AI, information and communication technology is also expanding in terms of capabilities and space, and network quality is constantly improving. Communication technology is accelerating towards the era of "sky earth" integration. AI injects new development momentum into the industry. In the past two years, the focus of AI has mainly been on large models. Now, the popularity of AI is gradually shifting towards application implementation, and AI terminals AI APP、AI Agent、 Embodied intelligence and other technologies have entered a stage of rapid development. In 2025, end-to-end AI applications will enter a period of explosive growth, and disruptive innovative applications may emerge at any time. New businesses such as 5G new calls and 5G messaging on the consumer side are also tightly embracing AI. Especially for 5G new calls, after the DC (Data Channel) channel standard and industry maturity, more AI based new call services such as AI assistants and AI customer service will be implemented. The form of AI terminals is not limited to mobile phones, but may also be embodied intelligent agents or other intelligent agents. The explosion of end-to-end AI will have a significant impact on the information and communication industry. This impact may be the rise of edge computing and end side computing, or the increase of traffic and agent communication traffic. How to meet the needs of end-to-end AI and achieve efficient data integration into the cloud and computing is worth further research. In addition to wireless technology, the impact of AI on the information and communication industry is reflected in optical communication in wired communication. The training of AI large-scale models relies on computing card clusters, which have a strong demand for ultra high speed (800G, 1.6T) optical communication, directly driving the explosion of related industries and also affecting SerDes, silicon optics, optical chips DSP、 Coherent light CPO/NPO/LPO、 Optical communication technologies such as hollow core fibers have made tremendous progress. With the continuous growth of the parameter scale of large models, the computing card cluster has also moved from the kilocard level to the ten thousand card level and one hundred thousand card level. The traditional single data center cluster is no longer sufficient to meet the demand, and multiple remote data centers are needed to form a larger computing card cluster together. Therefore, there is an opportunity for long-distance optical communication related to DCI (Data Center Interconnection). At present, progress has been made in upgrading the 400G backbone network in China, and related solutions for 1.6T are being intensively studied. The network empowers AI, and AI also empowers the network. In recent years, both basic telecommunications companies and equipment companies have been researching how to enhance existing communication technologies through AI. At present, there have been cases of intelligent improvement achieved through AI in wireless resource management, network planning optimization, business analysis and prediction, and fault diagnosis and handling. AI can help improve network performance, simplify network operations, enhance efficiency, and reduce costs. Industry pioneers have also developed communication models and network intelligent agents to help basic telecommunications companies more efficiently manage their networks. With the help of AI, by 2025, there will be more and more applications related to network intelligence, and network autonomy will accelerate into the L4 stage. With the advent of AI wave, the industry has proposed a new generation Internet concept based on "IPv6+" and named it "New Quality Internet". New Quality Internet regards AI as the main service object, and proposes four new scenarios of joint computing, joint intelligence, joint data, and joint space, as well as four key technological innovations of ultra wide new connection, new expansion of IPv6+, new network intelligence, and new security mechanism, aiming to achieve the comprehensive upgrade of the underlying technology of the Internet. In the field of fiber broadband, 50G PON (Passive Optical Network) has achieved small-scale commercial use, but still faces challenges from user demand and mature industrial chain. It is expected that 50G PON will be commercially available on a larger scale in 2025. In addition to home users, 50G PON may have more applications in B-end and G-end markets such as campus networks. In the field of mobile networks, the network performance improvement brought by 5G and 5G-A deeply empowers vertical industry scenarios, especially in industrial manufacturing, vehicle networking and other scenarios that require high network performance, which have significant effects. The digital transformation of enterprises has put forward more demands for private network communication, which presents both opportunities and challenges for basic telecommunications enterprises. In the field of the Internet of Things, the technological development path has become clear. The rise of Cat.1 indicates that cost plays a decisive role in market share. RedCap is the 'youthful version' of 5G, and the entire industry has high hopes for it. At present, the cost of RedCap is expected to drop below 100 yuan, which will bring a lot of opportunities to the industry. For basic telecommunications companies, RedCap's wide area contiguous coverage is one of the driving forces for building 5G-A. In many cities, basic telecommunications companies have initially achieved continuous coverage of RedCap, meeting the needs of wide area coverage scenarios such as garbage collection and security cameras. In addition, passive Internet of Things (P-IoT) is also worth paying attention to. This technology has potential market demand in scenarios such as warehousing and logistics, supermarket consumption, etc. In order to provide high-quality networks, the information and communication industry is finding ways to address network coverage and user experience issues. On the one hand, the competent authorities have enhanced the signal quality of areas such as subways, stations, airports, tunnels, etc. through actions such as "signal upgrade". On the other hand, basic telecommunications companies provide paid network optimization guarantees for high-end users, and more related services will be launched in 2025. In addition to providing stronger service capabilities in existing scenarios, the information and communication industry is also striving to find new application scenarios as the era of "integration of space, sky, and earth" accelerates. The rise of the low altitude economy industry has attracted much attention to the integration of sensing technology. The essence of synesthesia is the expansion of communication network functions, combining communication and perception capabilities. In addition to being used for detecting low altitude aircraft, it can also be used for sensing vehicles and ships, monitoring bridge deformation, and other fields. Low altitude aircraft require a large number of basic services, including low altitude communication, low altitude control, navigation guidance, etc., in addition to status and position perception. So, the industry has proposed the concept of "four networks" - facility network, air network, air route network, and service network, and the market application scenarios have become more diverse. Integrated sensing is a new field. From a technical perspective, although communication and radar are both based on wireless electromagnetic waves, they belong to different technological systems, and the integration of the two still faces challenges in terms of technology and industrialization. This integration and expansion is an important opportunity for the information and communication industry, and is expected to bring new business opportunities to the industry. In addition to expanding communication functions, synesthesia is also a component of ubiquitous communication. The development of communication technology not only enhances performance and provides more functions, but also expands coverage, ultimately achieving ubiquitous networking. Low altitude economy and synesthesia integration are network coverage aimed at low altitude, and corresponding solutions are also needed for medium altitude, high altitude, and space. In the high-altitude field, ATG (ground to air communication) is worth paying attention to. Basic telecommunications companies are beginning to layout in the ATG field, on the one hand, promoting aircraft model transformation and certification; On the other hand, the deployment of ATG base stations along key routes will be carried out. In 2025, basic telecommunications companies will have some important announcements in the ATG field. In addition, the popularity of satellite communication, especially high-throughput satellites and low orbit satellite chains, continues to rise. Over the past year, one of the hotspots in satellite communication has been the direct connection of mobile phones to satellite communication, with multiple companies launching related businesses. Not long ago, China Star Network began to officially deploy stars, which is worth looking forward to. The significance of satellite communication is not only to provide emergency communication in special situations, communication is just one aspect, it is essentially a multifunctional network with ubiquitous coverage capability. It is of great significance for China to invest in spatial layout, occupy spatial positions and spectrum resources. There are still many technologies worth paying attention to in the information and communication industry, such as quantum communication, semantic communication, intelligent metasurfaces, etc. The maturity of these technologies will take time. In 2025, the communication industry will continue to move forward. The important opportunity of AI cannot be missed. The expansion of low altitude economy, satellite Internet and other emerging fields is worth looking forward to. (New Society)