5G industry applications need to be expanded from "1 to N"

Time flies. China has been using 5G commercially for four years. If we regard these four years as the "first half" of 5G development, then the achievements of China's 5G are obvious to all. However, despite its fame, the future development of 5G still faces great challenges. How to solve the problems encountered in the development, or the difficulties, will be the primary task of 5G's "second half" and will determine the success or failure of 5G.

Overall, China has made remarkable achievements in 5G construction over the past four years and is in a leading position in the world. In terms of network construction, my country has opened more than 2.733 million 5G base stations, covering all prefecture-level cities and county towns across the country. Ports, hospitals, mines and other key scenarios have accelerated the deployment of 5G industry virtual private networks, and more than 16,000 have been built, laying a solid foundation for the large-scale development of 5G industry applications.

In terms of integrated applications, the "5G Application "Sailing" Action Plan (2021-2023)" has been steadily promoted. The application of 5G in mining, electricity, smart ports and other fields has begun to be replicated and promoted. Pilot explorations in medical care, education and other fields have continued to deepen, and typical application benchmarks and solutions have emerged in an endless stream. At present, there are more than 50,000 5G application innovation cases in my country, and 5G has been integrated into 52 of the 97 major categories of the national economy, and continues to expand and deepen. Personal applications are accelerating development, and "5G+UHD video" and "5G+AR/VR" have been widely used in entertainment, games, live events, residential services and other scenarios.

However, the development of 5G is currently facing a real challenge, that is, how to quickly achieve the scale replication from "1 to N" and how to unleash the superposition, multiplication and amplification effect of 5G on the transformation and development of the economy and society. This is a common concern of the 5G industry. In other words, on the occasion of the fourth anniversary of 5G commercialization, the industry needs to face up to the problem of large-scale application of 5G.

It can be said that the gains of the "first half" of 5G are: first, through active exploration, the industry has gained a deep understanding of 5G's ability to empower thousands of industries; second, a number of high-quality 5G application cases have emerged in ports, electricity, steel, mining, advanced manufacturing, electronic manufacturing and other fields.

However, these high-quality 5G application cases are still individual cases and have not formed an overall effect. In order to solve this problem, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is implementing a 5G large-scale application project this year to accelerate the large-scale development of 5G applications.

Industrial Internet is considered to be the main battlefield for 5G applications. Since the commercialization of 5G, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has been promoting the development of "5G + Industrial Internet" from point to surface. From the release of 20 typical application scenarios and 10 key industry practices of "5G + Industrial Internet" to the release of the "Guidelines for the Construction of 5G Fully Connected Factories", our work on "5G + Industrial Internet" points and lines has been quite successful. At present, the industry is actively promoting 5G fully connected factories, and many companies have played a leading and exemplary role.

However, at the "surface" stage, "5G+Industrial Internet" has encountered deep-seated problems such as high network construction costs, single applications, and unclear business models. The solution proposed by the industry sector is to focus on large-scale applications in the region first: the "5G+Industrial Internet" integrated application pilot zone can solve the practical problems of technology, application, industry, ecology, etc. faced by the large-scale application of "5G+Industrial Internet". At this stage, many provinces and cities across the country have actively responded and are intensively carrying out the preliminary preparations for the construction of the "5G+Industrial Internet" pilot zone to promote the "5G+Industrial Internet" from pilot demonstration to large-scale application.

Having crossed the breakthrough stage of "from 0 to 1" and is realizing the scale expansion of "from 1 to N", the integration of 5G with various industries and fields requires further efforts. It requires the government, enterprises, and associations to strengthen coordination and collaboration to form a 5G application innovation model with government guidance, enterprise linkage, and industry-university-research collaboration.