Prospects and challenges of 5G messaging development

With the rapid development and popularization of 5G technology, 5G messaging is gradually becoming a new focus in the global communications field.

5G messaging development shows a trend of scale and industrialization

It has been more than three years since the three major domestic operators jointly released the 5G message white paper in April 2020. In the past three years, 5G messages have gradually entered the public eye along with the rapid development of 5G technology and have become an emerging application that has attracted widespread attention.

From a technical perspective, the development of 5G messaging benefits from the rapid popularization of 5G networks and the continuous advancement of technology. The high speed, low latency and large data transmission characteristics of 5G networks provide strong support for 5G messaging, making message delivery faster, more real-time and more reliable. In terms of platform construction, the three major domestic operators have built 30 5G messaging nodes in 15 regions, forming a widely covered 5G messaging network. In addition, operators are also actively cooperating with various industries and enterprises to jointly promote the development of 5G messaging.

From the perspective of application scenarios, the application scenarios of 5G messages are already very extensive, meeting the needs of different industries and users. According to statistics, domestic operators have connected to hundreds of 5G message CSPs, opened more than 100,000 Chatbots, and sent nearly 20 billion 5G messages each year. Chatbot has achieved diversified applications in many fields such as government affairs, finance, culture and tourism, public services, life services, media, medical care, and e-commerce. For example, government agencies provide various public services to the public through 5G messages, such as government information inquiries and public safety warnings; enterprises use 5G messages to achieve internal communications and collaborative work, improve work efficiency and communication effects; social and entertainment applications bring users a new social experience through 5G messages, such as real-time interaction and short video sharing, making social interaction more convenient and interesting.

In addition, with the continuous improvement of terminal support, the popularity and usage rate of 5G messages are also gradually increasing. According to the 5G Message Working Group report, as of May 2023, there are 309 mobile phones that support the 5G Message UP2.4 standard, including 264 from China Mobile, 23 from China Unicom, and 22 from China Telecom. The continuous growth of this number means that more and more users can enjoy the convenience and efficiency brought by 5G messages.

Challenges and suggestions for the development of 5G messaging

At present, the development of 5G messaging is showing a trend of scale and industrialization. However, although 5G messaging has a good development momentum, it also faces some challenges in its development process. Although 5G messaging technology has made certain progress, it still needs to be further improved and matured. The industrial chain of 5G messaging involves multiple links, including equipment manufacturers, operators, platform developers, application developers, etc., and it is necessary to strengthen collaboration to promote the healthy development of the entire industrial chain.

At the same time, traditional SMS still plays an irreplaceable role in certain fields and specific scenarios. How to balance the relationship between traditional SMS and 5G messages is one of the problems that need to be solved at present. Secondly, there are not enough terminals that support 5G messages, and users' awareness of 5G messages is relatively low. Therefore, it is necessary to increase publicity efforts to improve users' awareness and usage of 5G messages, and further promote terminal manufacturers' support for 5G messages.

In addition, 5G messages still face some security and privacy protection issues. It is necessary to strengthen the construction of technology and management methods to ensure the security and privacy rights of user information. The business model of 5G messages is not yet clear, and how to realize commercial value still needs further exploration and practice. It is necessary to carry out in-depth market research and business analysis to explore the business model and business value that meet the characteristics of 5G messages.

Recently, at the award ceremony of the 5G Message Special Competition of the 6th "Zhanzhang Cup" 5G Application Collection Competition, Liang Yu, a third-level researcher of the Information and Communications Development Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, put forward three suggestions for the development of 5G messages:

First, in terms of technology, we must further promote the rapid iteration of relevant standards, explore industry needs, and form a relatively unified cross-enterprise and cross-field collaborative model to meet the differentiated needs of all industries;

Second, in terms of model, we must fully respect the market mechanism, and all parties in the industrial chain must make long-term plans, dare to innovate in the model, and achieve win-win cooperation in development;

Third, in terms of service, we should take telecommunications-level service as our purpose and improving user experience as the ultimate goal, fully draw on the demand-oriented development model of the Internet industry, and promote 5G messaging to become a new bridge between the government, enterprises and the public.

Conclusion

With the continuous evolution and application of 5G technology, the development prospects of 5G messaging are broad. In the future, 5G messaging will be further integrated with technologies such as artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things to achieve a wider range of business scenarios. At the same time, 5G messaging will also promote the transformation of the communications industry, drive the development of more industries, and bring more convenience to people's lives. We believe that in the near future, 5G messaging will become an important development direction in the communications field and make important contributions to the development and progress of human society.