After 4 years, 5G has blossomed

In June 2019, my country officially issued 5G commercial licenses to China Telecom, China Mobile, China Unicom and China Broadcasting Corporation. Over the past four years, my country's 5G development has achieved a series of gratifying results in policy environment construction, network construction, application promotion, and industrial ecosystem formation, and has entered the first echelon of 5G development in the world.

my country has established a complete 5G policy coordination system

Create a good development environment

In order to fully implement the relevant instructions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on the development of 5G, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology took the lead in jointly building a policy coordination system with inter-ministerial coordination and inter-provincial coordination to continuously promote the large-scale development of 5G networks and applications.

The Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People's Republic of China and the Long-Term Goals for 2035 clearly proposes to "build application scenarios and industrial ecology based on 5G". The "14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the Information and Communication Industry", the "5G Application "Sailing" Action Plan (2021-2023)", the "Notice on Promoting the Accelerated Development of 5G", the "Notice on Issuing the "5G+Industrial Internet" 512 Project Promotion Plan", the "Notice on Soliciting Excellent Cases of 5G Applications in the Energy Field", and the "Notice on Carrying out the Evaluation of the Implementation of the 5G Security Guide (2021)" and other documents strengthen policy guidance and support from multiple aspects such as network construction, application scenarios, industrial development, and security innovation. Local governments have also introduced targeted 5G development policies based on local conditions and the characteristics of local economic industries. Statistics show that by the end of June 2022, provinces and cities have issued a total of 779 5G support policy documents, including 89 provincial, 286 municipal, and 404 county-level.

my country has built the world's largest independent 5G network

Build an industry-oriented 5G industry virtual private network system

my country adheres to the principle of "moderately ahead of the times" and steadily advances the construction of 5G networks in the order of "large cities - small and medium-sized cities - towns - rural areas". At the same time, it promotes the transformation of 5G from to C to to B and builds a 5G industry virtual private network to serve vertical industries.

At present, my country is far ahead in the number of 5G base stations and individual users, and has built the world's largest 5G SA network. By the end of April 2023, the total number of 5G base stations in my country reached 2.733 million, accounting for 24.5% of the total number of mobile base stations, and the number of 5G base stations accounted for more than 60% of the world; the 5G network coverage rate in administrative areas above county level reached 100%, realizing "gigabit access to every city" and "5G access to every county". At the same time, 5G mobile phone users have also maintained rapid growth, and the current number of users has reached 634 million, accounting for 37.1% of mobile phone users. The 5G network has promoted the arrival of the traffic era, and the user's mobile Internet traffic has basically doubled. In April 2023, the average mobile Internet access traffic per household (DOU) reached 16.72GB/household/month, almost twice the 8.54GB/household/month in October 2019, which greatly promoted the development of the Internet economy. At the same time, my country has also built a 5G "one network" for the service industry. As of the end of 2022, the total number of 5G industry virtual private networks built will exceed 14,000, covering multiple fields such as industry, ports, energy, and medical care. According to statistics from the 5th "Bloom Cup" 5G Application Collection Competition, more than 50% of the projects used 5G industry virtual private networks.

my country's 5G applications are among the best in the world

Entering the critical period of scale promotion

According to the data monitoring of the "Zhanzhang Cup" 5G Application Collection Competition, the number of 5G application projects has increased rapidly from 334 in the first session in 2018 to 28,000 in the fifth session in 2022. At present, 5G applications have covered 40 of the 97 major categories of my country's national economy, and 5G application projects have been implemented in 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) in China.

In terms of personal applications, the three major operators are actively exploring 5G personal applications in the fields of 5G VoNR, XR, AI, etc. China Mobile took the lead in the trial commercialization of 5G VoNR, and Migu released "Quick Tour" products such as 5G Cloud VR and 5G Cloud Games; China Telecom included Tianyi Cloud Games and Tianyi Cloud VR in 5G membership rights and interests, which can be experienced for free; in May 2022, China Unicom launched 5G VoNR services in 125 cities in China.

In terms of industry applications, the number of 5G industry application projects has exceeded 20,000, and key industries such as industry, energy, medical care, culture and tourism, and education have begun to achieve large-scale replication and promotion of solutions. Currently, 5G has been commercially applied in 523 medical institutions, 1,796 factories and enterprises, 201 mining companies, and 256 power companies. In addition, data from the fifth "Blooming Cup" competition showed that 56% of the projects have achieved "commercial implementation" and "replicable solutions", and 15% of the projects have achieved "replicable solutions".

In terms of application value, 5G applications have brought significant economic benefits and social value to the high-quality development of all industries. For example, Baosteel's "5G+Crane" application uses 5G to achieve automatic control and driving of the crane, promoting a 20% increase in operating efficiency. Zhejiang Electric Power relies on 5G to achieve observable, measurable, controllable and adjustable resources of "source, network, load and storage", improve photovoltaic absorption capacity, and is expected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 13.4 million tons per year.

my country builds a 5G integrated technology industry system, and the ecosystem takes shape

In the process of large-scale development of 5G applications, in order to solve the diversity problems of the industry's original business architecture, network protocols, terminal types, business types, etc., the 5G industry system has gradually incubated and formed new technology routes, product forms, industrial links, etc. from the original 5G technology industry system for the personal market, giving birth to new branches of the 5G industry application industry and promoting the formation of a new industrial system.

In terms of terminal products, the types of 5G terminals are constantly enriched and the prices are constantly falling. As of the end of December 2022, a total of 1,291 5G terminals have been released in China, including 659 5G mobile phones, 194 modules, 217 CPEs, and 68 industrial gateways/routers. The 5G industry module grading and classification strategy has driven down the production costs of industry 5G terminals. For example, the price of domestic industry 5G general modules has dropped to 400 yuan. The integration of 5G and industry terminals/equipment has initially emerged, and industry integration equipment such as 5G coal mine tunneling machines and 5G port gantry cranes have also begun to appear.

In terms of network products, customized network products based on industries are gradually enriched, and customized 5G base station products such as mining 5G flameproof base stations and power 5G high-precision timing base stations, as well as lightweight core networks, industry-customized UPF/MEC and other network equipment have begun to be deployed in projects. The launch of intensive operation and maintenance products such as the 5G external capability service platform has helped enterprises in industries such as steel and power to enhance their 5G network management and maintenance capabilities.

In terms of application solutions, operators, Internet companies, industry integrators, and industry enterprises have leveraged their respective strengths to build their own 5G application solution supply capabilities. In the industrial field, solutions for more than 40 application scenarios have been formed, including "5G+machine vision" and "5G+remote assistance". In the mining field, more than 10 solutions, including "5G+remote excavation", "5G+intelligent comprehensive mining", "5G+remote control of underground equipment", and "5G+unmanned mining trucks", have been piloted or commercialized.

my country's large-scale 5G application has become a future development focus, and the digital transformation of the industry has become a development opportunity

In the future, the development of 5G in my country will fully shift to the stage of large-scale application promotion. We need to follow the laws of 5G application development, coordinate development and security, give play to the advantages of the super-large-scale market, realize the value of 5G empowerment, accelerate the digital transformation and upgrading of the industry, and at the same time enhance the technology industry supply capacity and build a cross-domain and cross-industry collaborative technology industry system.

First, implement policies by industry and category, accelerate the popularization of applications, and help the digital transformation of industries. Relying on the national and local 5G-related policies, promote the penetration of 5G into core links in industries such as industrial manufacturing, energy, ports, and medical care. At the same time, summarize the methods and approaches that can be replicated on a large scale, form an industry application implementation guide, and guide industry enterprises to achieve application integration and implementation. In the fields of education, cultural tourism, smart cities, etc., it is necessary to promote the replication of scenarios on a large scale to realize the value of 5G applications; at the same time, promote the development of 5G in emerging industries such as ocean, agriculture, and water conservancy.

Second, promote the integration of 5G and traditional industry infrastructure. Promote the large-scale deployment of 5G industry virtual private networks, promote the accelerated integration of 5G into the information infrastructure construction of traditional industries, and build a new generation of industry information infrastructure.

Third, the 5G converged technology industry needs to play the dual role of policy guidance and market traction, achieve market aggregation through standards and universal products, build a cross-industry industrial cooperation system, improve the new R&D and innovation system, build a new network planning and operation model, and form an industrial supply system with a rich product system and high cost performance.