Ministry of Industry and Information Technology: The information and communication industry is operating smoothly, with 5G users accounting for more than 30%

On November 21, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released the "Economic Operation of the Communications Industry from January to October 2022". The report pointed out that from January to October, the information and communications industry operated smoothly. Telecommunications business revenue maintained steady growth, and the total volume of telecommunications business grew rapidly; the pace of "superhuman" continued to increase, and the construction of new infrastructure such as 5G and gigabit optical networks was steadily advancing; emerging businesses such as cloud computing grew rapidly, and new momentum for industry development continued to be released.

I. Overall Operation

Telecommunications business revenue grew steadily, and the total volume of telecommunications business maintained a double-digit growth rate. From January to October, the total revenue of telecommunications business reached 1,321.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8%. The total volume of telecommunications business calculated at the same price as last year increased by 21.4% year-on-year.

Figure 1: Cumulative growth rate of telecommunications business revenue and total telecommunications business volume

Fixed Internet broadband business revenue grew steadily. From January to October, the three basic telecommunications companies achieved Internet broadband business revenue of 199.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.9%, accounting for 15.1% of telecommunications business revenue, the same as in the first three quarters, driving the growth of telecommunications business revenue by 1.2 percentage points.

Mobile data traffic business revenue grew at a slow pace. From January to October, the three basic telecommunications companies achieved mobile data traffic business revenue of 538.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 0.7%, accounting for 40.7% of telecommunications business revenue, driving the growth of telecommunications business revenue by 0.3 percentage points.

Revenue from emerging businesses maintained rapid growth. The three basic telecommunications companies actively developed emerging businesses such as IPTV, Internet data centers, big data, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things. From January to October, they achieved a total revenue of 256.3 billion yuan in related businesses, a year-on-year increase of 33.1%, accounting for 19.4% of telecommunications business revenue, driving the growth of telecommunications business revenue by 5.2 percentage points. Among them, cloud computing and big data revenues grew by 127.8% and 59.3% year-on-year respectively, data center business revenue grew by 12.7% year-on-year, and Internet of Things business revenue grew by 25.6% year-on-year.

Figure 2: Growth of revenue from emerging businesses

The decline in voice business revenue narrowed. From January to October, the three basic telecommunications companies achieved fixed voice and mobile voice business revenues of 17.24 billion yuan and 95.89 billion yuan, down 9.1% and 1.4% year-on-year, respectively, and the decline narrowed by 0.5 and 1.5 percentage points respectively compared with the first three quarters; the two businesses together accounted for 8.6% of telecommunications business revenue, a year-on-year decline of 1 percentage point.

II. Development of Telecommunications Users

The number of fixed broadband access users has increased steadily, and the number of gigabit users has continued to expand. As of the end of October, the total number of fixed Internet broadband access users of the three basic telecommunications companies reached 583 million, a net increase of 47.45 million over the end of last year. Among them, the number of fixed Internet broadband access users with access speeds of 100Mbps and above reached 547 million, accounting for 93.8% of the total number of users, an increase of 0.8 percentage points over the end of last year; the number of fixed Internet broadband access users with access speeds of 1000Mbps and above reached 81.35 million, a net increase of 46.76 million over the end of last year, accounting for 13.9% of the total number of users, an increase of 0.8 percentage points over the first three quarters.

Figure 3: Fixed Internet broadband access users with speeds above 100M and above 1000M

The scale of mobile phone users has increased steadily, and the number of 5G users accounts for more than 30%. As of the end of October, the total number of mobile phone users of the three basic telecommunications companies reached 1.682 billion, a net increase of 39.47 million from the end of last year. Among them, 5G mobile phone users reached 524 million, a net increase of 169 million from the end of last year, accounting for 31.1% of mobile phone users, an increase of 9.5 percentage points from the end of last year.

The pace of "Internet of Things" continues to increase, and IPTV users are growing steadily. As of the end of October, the three basic telecommunications companies have developed 1.777 billion cellular Internet of Things terminal users, a net increase of 379 million over the end of last year; the number of mobile phone users has exceeded 94.82 million, accounting for 51.4% of the number of mobile network terminal connections (including mobile phone users and cellular Internet of Things terminal users). The total number of IPTV (Internet TV) users reached 374 million, a net increase of 25.32 million over the end of last year.

Figure 4 IoT terminal users

3. Use of Telecommunication Services

Mobile Internet traffic grew rapidly, with the monthly DOU value reaching a new high. From January to October, the cumulative mobile Internet traffic reached 213.9 billion GB, a year-on-year increase of 18.2%. As of the end of October, the number of mobile Internet users reached 1.462 billion, a net increase of 46.37 million households over the end of last year. In October, the average mobile Internet access traffic (DOU) per household reached 16.12GB/household/month, a year-on-year increase of 12.5%, and 1.4GB/household/month higher than the end of last year.

Figure 5: Cumulative mobile Internet access traffic and growth rate

Figure 6 Monthly mobile Internet access traffic and average traffic per household (DOU)

Mobile phone call volume grew at a slow pace, while the growth rate of mobile text messaging business volume rebounded slightly. From January to October, mobile phone outgoing call duration reached 1.91 trillion minutes, a year-on-year increase of 1.3%; fixed-line outgoing call duration reached 69.6 billion minutes, a year-on-year decrease of 10.2%. From January to October, the national mobile text messaging business volume increased by 4.4% year-on-year, and the mobile text messaging business revenue increased by 1.6% year-on-year, with the growth rate increasing by 0.9 and falling by 0.3 percentage points respectively compared with the first three quarters.

Figure 7 Growth rate of mobile phone users and call duration

Figure 8 Year-on-year growth in mobile SMS business volume and revenue

4. Communication Capabilities

Gigabit network service capabilities continue to improve. As of the end of October, the number of Internet broadband access ports nationwide reached 1.06 billion, a net increase of 41.93 million from the end of last year. Among them, fiber-optic access (FTTH/O) ports reached 1.013 billion, a net increase of 52.88 million from the end of last year, accounting for 95.6% of Internet broadband access ports, an increase of 1.3 percentage points from the end of last year. As of the end of October, the number of 10G PON ports with gigabit network service capabilities reached 13.27 million, a net increase of 5.408 million from the end of last year.

Figure 9 Development of the number of Internet broadband access ports

The construction of 5G networks is progressing steadily. As of the end of October, the total number of 5G base stations reached 2.25 million, a net increase of 825,000 from the end of last year, accounting for 20.9% of the total number of mobile base stations, an increase of 6.6 percentage points from the end of last year.

V. Regional Development

The penetration rate of users with access speeds of 100 Mbps or above in the central region is slightly ahead. As of the end of October, the penetration rates of fixed broadband access users with access speeds of 100 Mbps or above in the eastern, central, western and northeastern regions were 93.7%, 94.6%, 93.2% and 93.6% respectively. The number of broadband access users with access speeds of 1000 Mbps or above reached 40.52 million, 18.24 million, 20.27 million and 2.31 million respectively, accounting for 16.3%, 12.5%, 13.1% and 6.7% of the total number of fixed broadband access users in the region respectively.

The eastern region leads in 5G construction and user penetration. As of the end of October, the number of 5G base stations in the eastern, central, western and northeastern regions reached 1.081 million, 482,000, 547,000 and 140,000, respectively, accounting for 23.1%, 20.4%, 18.1% and 19.7% of the total number of mobile phone base stations in the region. The number of 5G mobile phone users reached 234 million, 122 million, 134 million and 34 million, respectively, accounting for 32%, 31.4%, 30.1% and 28.5% of the total number of mobile phone users in the region.

The growth rate of mobile Internet access traffic in the central region leads the way, and the DOU value in some western provinces exceeds 20GB/household/month. From January to October, the mobile Internet access traffic in the eastern, central, western and northeastern regions reached 91.04 billion GB, 48.39 billion GB, 63.47 billion GB and 11.02 billion GB, respectively, up 17.8%, 20%, 18.6% and 11.7% year-on-year. In October, the average mobile Internet access traffic (DOU) per household in Tibet, Qinghai, Xinjiang, Ningxia and Yunnan exceeded 20GB/household/month, with two more provinces added compared to September.