Digital Intelligent Sites Enable Self-Resilient Emergency Response Network

Recently, at the MBB Summit during the 28th AfricaCom in 2025, Huawei's Vice President of Marketing for the Wireless Network Business, Samuel Chen, attended and delivered a keynote speech titled "Inspiring African Mobile Industry for the Next Golden Decade." Chen noted that, Africa's weak power infrastructure faces severe communication challenges due to extreme events such as floods and conflicts. Huawei's Single SitePower solution integrates intelligent collaboration between power system and wireless system, achieving the convergence of bit flow and watt flow, providing end-to-end assurance and keeping emergency communication networks always online.

In Spain this year, over 35 million people were affected during a nationwide power outage. Mobile phone signals were interrupted, and emergency hotlines could not be reached, causing havoc in society. Meanwhile in sub-Saharan countries, where weak infrastructure results in an average electricity access rate of only 60%, and unstable solar and generator power supply leads to unreliable mobile networks during the rainy season. Children, the elderly, and others who are vulnerable to the disease are often deprived of timely medication.

According to Ghana's network statistics, power outages have caused more than 68% of base stations to go offline. Therefore, enhancing network resilience is most easily achieved by improving power-system reliability. Ensuring emergency communications depends on enhancing end-to-end resilience: minimizing risks, maximizing capability assurance, and minimizing recovery time. Huawei's innovative intelligent digital site solution deeply integrates wireless sites with energy, antenna, and transmission systems to build site-wide sensing and control capabilities.

A particular strength of the solution is the deep coordination between digital power systems and the RAN systems. The latest Single Site Power series, featuring adaptive backup power, adaptive PV integration, and adaptive diesel replacement, can maximize site capabilities. Paired with the wireless AI brain—RAN FME Mate, this solution enables precise power-system fault detection and rapid repair, reducing fault rectification time by more than 30%. In terms of emergency response and humanitarian relief, Huawei provides end-to-end emergency communications assurance, with innovative solutions and global case studies covering phases before, during, and after a disaster.

Before the event: Site health assessment minimizes risks. Through site health status check, hidden hazards are identified and early warning are issued, minimizing the risk of network interruption before an incident occurs. For example, Huawei's proprietary smart lithium battery capacity calibration and backup power awareness can automatically detect base-station backup power risks, ensuring stable site operation during power outages.

These capabilities are particularly valuable in remote areas with poor road conditions, such as in Africa, where engineers might need an entire day to reach a site. This makes onsite detection incredibly time-consuming and brings high safety risks, with an engineer only able to detect one site per day. In South Sudan, telecom operator Zain employs intelligent lithium battery capacity calibration to remotely and automatically check the battery health of sites, improving efficiency by 100 times, while achieving accuracy of over 99%. This effectively eliminates potential risks before emergencies occur.

“In 2022, for example, disasters triggered a record 32.6 million internal displacements, of which 98 per cent were caused by weather-related hazards such as floods, storms, wildfires and droughts, according to the International Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC).” Said Wilfried Bationo. “In flood affected areas such as South Sudan, Zain collaborated with Huawei to deploy solar hybrid power systems equipped with intelligent management platforms that predict solar generation, ensuring no service interruption during raining season.”

This solution could prove incredibly beneficial during an emergency such as a sudden flood, where some base stations go offline. Conventional solutions require engineers to locate faults onsite, often at great personal risk, and full repairs typically require at least two site visits. In emergency scenarios, time is a lifeline; the fastest way to ensure communications is to establish a green channel for supporting rescue operations.

During the event: Site-wide coordination maximizes site capabilities. Huawei's adaptive power backup solution dynamically adjusts backup policies based on service priority and real-time energy consumption, shutting down low-priority services in stages to ensure critical communications services are always online. After the mains power is interrupted, the power system and wireless network work together intelligently to automatically execute energy-saving strategies, prolonging the duration of critical services and preventing base station outages.

MTN launch of the world’s first adaptive power backup solution for emergency scenarios in Zambia. Even with power outages exceeding 6 hours per day, no additional batteries are needed to extend services online time by 3 to 6 hours. The solution build the lifeline of mobile Communications. For example, in Kafue village in Zambia, residents are grateful to the operator for providing uninterrupted mobile coverage, which allows them to quickly contact doctors during Malaria outbreaks so that children can receive prompt treatment.

After the event: Built on the digital-intelligent site foundation and cloud-based RAN FME Mate, the solution enables intelligent fault diagnosis for fronthaul optical links and power systems, cutting fault rectification time by more than 30%. This provides solid support for communications assurance in emergency scenarios. Take the intelligent site digitalized unit (iSDU) digital site power solution as an example. It identifies the power distribution topology, with a PLC communication module embedded within each power line. It can also accurately identify the power consumption and model of each RF module, and intelligently detect cable length, gauge, and port faults. When paired with the RAN FME Mate O&M assistant, this solution can guide onsite personnel to complete all necessary repairs in a single visit, greatly reducing disaster recovery time.

Samuel Chen Vice President of Marketing Wireless Network Business, speaking at the summit

“From connecting the unconnected to providing stable and reliable connections, Huawei will continue to work with operators. Together, we will build strong, resilient networks to protect and support communications across Africa.” Samuel Chen stated this.

The solution is delivering reliable emergency network support across Africa and the Middle East, where 55.4 million people live in internal displacement and it take 67% of global internal displacement population, according to the 2025 GRID). Huawei's digital and intelligent site solution has been successfully deployed across live networks in more than 10 countries, including Zambia, South Africa, South Sudan, Kuwait, and Malaysia. With its proven resilience and reliability, the solution lays a robust technical foundation for building highly autonomous and intelligent emergency communication systems.

By enabling a shift from reactive recovery to proactive prevention and intelligent support, this innovation strengthens critical communication lifelines in times of crisis. From a humanitarian perspective, it helps ensure that vulnerable and remote communities remain connected when it matters most—protecting lives, supporting disaster response, and fostering resilience in regions where communication can mean the difference between crisis and survival.