It will take time for 5G cross-network roaming to become popular

On May 17, at the opening ceremony of the "2023 World Telecommunication and Information Society Day Conference", China Telecom, China Mobile, China Unicom and China Broadcasting Corporation jointly announced the launch of the world's first 5G inter-network roaming trial commercial operation in Xinjiang.

The so-called "5G roaming" means that when the operator has no 5G network coverage, users can access the 5G network of other operators and continue to use 5G services. In other words, if China Unicom's 5G users encounter a lack of Unicom 5G network coverage while traveling in Xinjiang, they can directly connect to China Mobile's 5G network to communicate.

At present, domestic 5G roaming is limited to Xinjiang, and cannot be used in other provinces and cities, and users need to use terminals that support 5G roaming. Logically, this 5G roaming mainly involves the 700MHz frequency band jointly built by China Radio and Television and China Mobile, and the 5G mobile phones used by users must support 700MHz. However, the new mobile phones that have been connected to the network in the past two years should basically meet the requirements.

Due to the high frequency band, 5G network construction is very expensive and has a long construction period. The limited coverage area of ​​base stations leads to a huge number of base stations to be built, and operators have serious waste in duplicate construction. Even if base stations are built, it will be difficult for operators to recover costs normally due to low utilization. Therefore, many operators have a strong demand for cost saving and efficiency improvement, and co-construction and sharing have become the general trend.

For consumers, the realization of roaming between operators can greatly improve the service experience, and there is no need to worry about the loss of network signals even in remote areas. In addition, since the network has realized roaming between operators, users have more freedom when choosing operators and can pay more attention to service factors other than the network.

Most European countries, as well as Japan and South Korea, have adopted network sharing in their 5G construction, and China's 5G network construction has also achieved co-construction and sharing between China Unicom and China Telecom, and co-construction and sharing between China Mobile and China Broadcasting Corporation on the 700MHz frequency band. The launch of the trial commercial use of 5G cross-network roaming has obviously raised co-construction and sharing to a new level, and China is once again leading the world in 5G construction.

From the user's perspective, it would be best if "one device in hand" could connect to all networks, but this idea is difficult to achieve due to competition between operators. Moreover, competition between operators is also the basis for promoting the construction of communication infrastructure and improving service levels. Eliminating competition between operators will lead to "negative incentives", thereby reducing the level of development of the communication industry in all aspects, and ultimately harming the interests of consumers.

Therefore, we can see that countries around the world are very cautious about roaming on different networks, and even governments will set high thresholds to prevent "cooperation" between operators. In European countries such as Spain and Italy, strict restrictions are imposed on network sharing areas, and only small towns with population and density below the limit can roam on different networks. South Korea stipulates that the population density in the shared area should be less than 92 people/square kilometer, while the average population density in South Korea is as high as 3,490 people/square kilometer.

China Unicom was the first advocate of 5G roaming in China, dating back to 2017. Today, the realization of 5G roaming will help operators including China Unicom to invest more resources in core markets, reduce operating costs, and improve user experience. China Mobile is also expected to charge some 5G base station usage fees and improve the operating efficiency of 5G networks.

Overall, 5G inter-network roaming can significantly reduce operators' network construction and operation and maintenance costs, while improving user experience. It provides a successful model for the construction and operation of 5G networks in sparsely populated areas. It has a demonstration significance for 5G construction in West Asia, Africa and South America, and has become a new example of win-win cooperation among operators.

All things are difficult at the beginning. Since 5G inter-network roaming has been put into trial commercial use in Xinjiang, more regions will surely be able to enjoy similar conveniences in the future. However, it will inevitably be limited to special areas with vast land and sparse population, and the possibility of widespread and comprehensive popularization is not great.