Japanese media: China may be the first to master 5G international standards

China, which has no say in almost all modern science and technology fields, is working hard to change this embarrassing situation through the strong financial strength accumulated over the years. Among them, communication technology, which controls the lifeline of modern social economy, is the main focus, and 5G can be said to be a representative project.

According to a report by Nikkei on January 6, China's three major telecommunications operators have formulated a plan to invest 300 billion yuan (about 44 billion U.S. dollars) to build a communication network for the next-generation wireless communication standard 5G by 2020. As 5G, which is the infrastructure for the "Internet of Things (TOT)" and autonomous driving, is rapidly gaining popularity in the world's largest market, China's technology and services are likely to approach actual world standards.

Compared with 4G, 5G will not only significantly increase communication speed, but will also become the highest standard for the Internet of Things, which envisions hundreds of billions of devices connecting to the Internet to exchange data.

China Mobile Communications Group, which has more than 800 million users, is working with more than 40 companies around the world to develop 5G technology. In addition to large communications equipment companies such as Sweden's Ericsson, Finland's Nokia, and China's Huawei Technologies, it also includes American semiconductor companies Qualcomm and Intel. In addition, it is also cooperating with companies in other industries such as the United States' General Motors, Germany's Volkswagen, Alibaba Group, and Haier Group.

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China Mobile has completed the development of 5G basic technology and will start outdoor verification experiments in 2017. It will promote commercialization in some areas in 2018 and upgrade more than 1 million 4G base stations in China to 5G in 2019. It will strive to start nationwide service in 2020.

Not only has China Mobile made substantial progress in 5G R&D and deployment, but China Unicom has also begun to work with Qualcomm to promote development. China Telecom Group has also begun similar R&D.

China is the world's largest mobile phone country with more than 1.3 billion mobile phone contracts. Although it started late in building fixed-line telephones and communication infrastructure compared to developed countries such as Japan and the United States, financial services such as electronic payments and car-sharing services based on smartphones have become popular. It is at the forefront of the world in mobile phone-related services.

The construction of 5G networks has the potential to accelerate the development of new services. For example, at home, all home appliances can be connected to the Internet to instantly share high-definition videos or automatically control a comfortable indoor environment. In factories, multiple robots can be managed in a unified manner or failures can be prevented through big data analysis.

In the field of autonomous driving, information about surrounding vehicles can be sent to connected cars to avoid collisions in a timely manner. The Chinese government is discussing the realization of fully autonomous vehicles by 2025 and making fully autonomous vehicles account for about 10% of new car sales by 2030. 5G communication networks will become the basis for achieving this goal.

If China takes the lead in 5G, more Chinese companies will enter overseas markets using their achievements as a springboard. If Chinese companies gain influence in services related to the foundation of autonomous driving and the Internet of Things, security issues may be raised in the United States, which excludes Huawei, further intensifying friction.