The high-quality development of 5G still requires more active policy support

Recently, the three major telecom operators have been promoting the achievements of the third anniversary of 5G commercial use. According to data released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, my country's 5G network construction has exceeded the task. As of the end of September, there were more than 2.2 million 5G base stations in the country, accounting for more than 60% of the world's 5G base stations; the number of 5G users exceeded 500 million, and the penetration rate of all mobile phone users in my country exceeded 30%; there are tens of thousands of industry projects for 5G scale application, and "5G + X" application scenarios are everywhere. It can be said that China's 5G development has achieved remarkable results in the three years since commercial use.

However, the climax of 5G development is far from coming, and it still faces many challenges: how to promote the development of C-end user applications and enhance the 5G experience; how to increase 5G coverage, not only to cover the vast remote areas, but also to improve the indoor and outdoor network coverage in 5G hotspots - the existing 2.2 million 5G base stations are obviously not enough to support the needs of future 5G users; how to improve 5G availability, the satisfaction of future 5G users with 5G cannot be evaluated only by the population coverage of 5G, and the certainty of its network is the key to development. These are not only the needs of C-end users, but also the rigid needs of industry users for 5G network performance; how to attract more industry users, although 5G has been applied in 40 industries among the 97 major categories of the national economy, it is undeniable that 5G to B applications face the problem of too long a chain and a long scene landing cycle; the 5G business model needs a breakthrough. In the past three years of commercial use, whether it is to C or to B, 5G is still immersed in the atmosphere of a new connection technology rather than an innovation platform. The industry is keen to discuss 5G-Advanced, 6G and the "sluggish market" of the metaverse, which actually reflects a certain weakness of 5G business innovation.

How to solve these problems and make 5G develop with high quality and play a more active role in strengthening the industry and benefiting people's livelihood? The key to 5G development lies in more active policy support. As we all know, the key to China's 5G development in the past three years is the support of national policies, from the issuance of 5G licenses to the introduction of the "new infrastructure" strategy to the strong support of local governments for 5G construction. "Policy dividends" are a major reason for the rapid development of 5G.

As 5G development is on the right track, we see that the "policy dividend" factor is fading behind it. In terms of 5G development, the government often plays the role of industry guidance, such as the "5G Application "Sailing" Action Plan (2021-2023)" launched by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology last year. At present, 5G development is going wider and deeper, and solving some deep-seated problems still requires strong policy support.

First, in terms of the use of frequency resources, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology recently approved China Unicom to re-cultivate the 900MHz frequency band currently used for 2G/3G/4G systems for 5G systems. The introduction of this policy shows that the government authorities are using spectrum resources to promote the high-quality development of 5G. Frequency resource re-cultivation is of great significance to the construction of the low-frequency 5G industry ecosystem. It is also an important measure to achieve balanced development of 5G in China, reflecting the strong support of spectrum policies for the development of the 5G industry.

Secondly, the government can use more proactive measures to accelerate the development of 5G industry applications. First, how to guide the industry to build 5G industry-specific networks in a moderately advanced manner, encourage industry users, telecom operators, and cloud computing companies to carry out more cooperation based on industry-specific networks, explore new models, and find new paths; second, speed up the formulation of standards for 5G industry-specific networks. In this regard, the industry is already actively promoting it, but it still needs the appropriate help of the competent authorities to speed up the process.

Finally, we need to play a more active policy guidance role in the construction of the 5G industry ecosystem. For example, 5G messaging is a 5G application that is generally favored by the industry and can trigger the 5G to C and to B application, but it is still "loud thunder and little rain", and is in an embarrassing situation. The reason is nothing more than the problem of interest distribution between operators, terminal manufacturers and application manufacturers. This is originally a market development issue, but when the interests of several parties cannot be balanced, from the overall perspective of 5G development, the government authorities need to provide strong guidance, otherwise, 5G messaging may die.