Review of the year when 5G “set sail”: The wind is right and the sails are full

From the initial standard to its implementation, my country's 5G network construction scale, total number of 5G users, and number of 5G application cases have fully demonstrated the "China speed".

2022 is a key year for the large-scale development of 5G applications. Since the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and ten other departments jointly issued the "5G Application "Sailing" Action Plan (2021-2023)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Action Plan") in July 2021, China's telecom operators have actively expanded the breadth and depth of 5G applications in various industries, and have built a number of "model houses" in the three major areas of information consumption, real economy, and people's livelihood services. It is expected to achieve the goal of transitioning from point-to-point applications to large-scale "commercial housing" construction by 2023.

One year after the implementation of the Action Plan, what outstanding achievements have been made in 5G industry applications? What difficulties, pain points, and bottlenecks have been encountered? This article interviewed experts from CAICT, operators, equipment manufacturers, and industry users in order to provide reference suggestions for the industry, help 5G application scenarios continue to expand and deepen, and bring more growth opportunities for the development of the digital industry.

From "0 to 1", 5G applications have achieved remarkable results

With its natural to B gene, 5G shoulders the mission of empowering thousands of industries. Three years after 5G was put into commercial use, 5G industry applications are expanding commercial scenarios at an unexpected speed and entering a critical period of large-scale application. Especially after the release of the Action Plan last year, the development of 5G industry applications in my country has entered the "fast lane".

The "Action Plan" not only clarifies the development direction and goals of 5G applications in key industries in my country in the next three years, but also proposes the development goals, application scenarios, application links, implementation measures, etc. of 5G in 15 vertical industries, and gives specific implementation measures and methods for the integrated application of 5G and industries. It will promote the implementation of 5G applications in various industries through pilot demonstrations, pilot zones, and other means.

Looking back at the beginning of the development of 5G to B, the key users were leading enterprises and powerful large companies in the industry, with the goal of achieving large-scale development of 5G applications through the leading role of leading enterprises. At that time, 5G mainly met the scenario-based application needs of vertical industry users such as remote control, information collection, high-definition image and video processing. For example, the application scenarios of 5G in smart ports are mainly remote control of loading and unloading operations, unmanned transportation at ports, 5G smart tallying, 5G smart yards, port area video surveillance and AI recognition, etc.

Some experts said that the success of these 5G pilot projects has verified the feasibility and practicality of 5G to B applications, but only by moving from "model rooms" to "commercial housing" and achieving high-quality scale development can the real success of 5G to B be proven. Today, the practice of 5G to B has been significantly improved in depth, breadth and technological innovation. According to the data of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, 5G integrated applications have played an enabling role in many industries such as industry, medical care, education, and transportation, forming many typical application scenarios with commercial value, covering 40 of the 97 major categories of the national economy, and the cumulative number of 5G application cases has exceeded 20,000.

It can be seen that my country's 5G applications have achieved a breakthrough from "0 to 1" and entered a critical period of large-scale development. As a witness and promoter of the development of 5G applications, Du Jiadong, deputy director of the 5G Application Innovation Center of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, has deep feelings about this.

"According to the statistics of the 4th 'Blooming Cup' 5G Application Collection Competition in 2021, in terms of the number of application projects, my country has more than 12,000 5G application innovation projects, and the project participants include industry enterprises, operators, research institutes, industry associations, government agencies, etc., with nearly 7,000 participating enterprises; from the industry dimension, more than 30 industries such as industry, energy, medical care, culture and tourism, and education have applied 5G, and 5G applications have gradually penetrated from auxiliary links to core links, and expanded to the full life cycle of R&D design, production and manufacturing, operation management, and product services; in terms of geographical coverage, 31 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions in my country, a total of 330 prefecture-level cities have carried out 5G applications." Du Jiadong emphasized, "Whether in terms of the number of industries, the number of enterprises, the geographical scope, or the innovation and depth of applications, my country is in a leading position in the world."

At the same time, standards are the key driving force for achieving the replicability of the entire technology industry. In terms of 5G application standards, my country has built industry standard systems such as 5G+Industrial Internet, 5G+Medical, and 5G+Electricity, and has also formed a series of standards for 5G industry virtual private networks and 5G industry terminals. According to incomplete statistics, standard organizations or alliances such as the China Communications Standards Association (CCSA) and the 5G Application Industry Alliance (5G AIA) have carried out a total of 87 5G standard research and formulation work, including 25 common technical standards and 62 integrated application standards, involving 2 international standards, 3 national standards, 50 industry standards, 3 group standards, and 29 alliance standards.

Empowering all industries, operators strive to be the first

Such excellent results are hard-won: first, the government has provided a good development environment for 5G; second, the IMT-2020 Promotion Group, the 5G Application Industry Array, etc. have played an important platform role in 5G standards, R&D, application innovation, etc.; finally, R&D cooperation among my country's telecommunications operators, equipment manufacturers, industry users, etc. is the key to building a 5G integrated application ecosystem.

As the "main force" of digital transformation, telecom operators are both the leaders in 5G construction and the promoters of 5G's integration into the industry.

China Telecom's 5G customized network commercial projects have covered all 15 key industries in the Action Plan, with more than 1,200 projects to be implemented in 2021. The three types of customized networks, "Zhiyuan, Bilin, and Ruyi", give full play to the characteristics of 5G wide connection, high speed, low latency and data security, empowering industries such as industrial Internet, integrated media, smart cities, smart mining, Internet of Vehicles, smart medical care, and smart ports. Through various types of virtual customized networks, the digital transformation and upgrading needs of various types of enterprises in society are met, which greatly improves the product quality and production efficiency of enterprises, effectively solves the problems of complex network construction, difficult operating environment, and high security risks in specific industries, and helps the digitalization and intelligent transformation and upgrading of vertical industries.

Relying on the "5G+" plan, China Mobile focuses on 18 key industry fields, promotes the integration of 5G into thousands of industries and deepens into industry production scenarios, accelerating the process of large-scale commercial use of 5G industry applications. So far, China Mobile has created more than 200 5G leading demonstration projects, more than 5,000 provincial regional characteristic projects, more than 10,100 5G industry commercial cases, and more than 4,400 5G boutique private network projects, and has achieved scale expansion in many typical industries such as smart mines, smart factories, smart electricity, smart metallurgy, smart ports, and smart hospitals. In order to promote the large-scale development of 5G industry applications, China Mobile has also launched two innovative technical solutions for the industry: "5G Smart Industry Network" and "5G+ Industry Field Network".

In the field of 5G industry applications, China Unicom has formed seven leading industries such as industrial manufacturing, medical care, smart cities, and digital government, and has created more than 500 5G application scenarios, more than 3,500 5G "lighthouse" projects, and more than 8,000 5G commercial industry application projects, covering more than 20 sub-industries such as steel, mining, education, culture and tourism, and medical care, accelerating the transformation of 5G applications from "model rooms" to "commercial housing". In March this year, 5G smart medical care illuminated Hainan Health Island, and the Beijing 5G Capital project won the 2022 GSMA GLOMO World-Class Award, making Unicom's 5G private network brand global.

Cross-border collaboration among enterprises accelerates the implementation of 5G applications

In the large-scale development of 5G industry applications, Huawei has worked with operators in key industries such as industry, energy, and ports to complete the implementation and commercial closure of more than 5,000 projects. In the port industry, Huawei has cooperated with Shenzhen Mawan Port, Tianjin Port, and Ningbo Port to achieve remote control of gantry cranes through 5G, improving the working environment, reducing the number of people working at heights, and transferring some on-site personnel to the office to operate, thereby improving overall efficiency. In the mining industry, Huawei has cooperated with Shanxi Yangmei Coal Mine and Inner Mongolia Madiliang Coal Mine to deploy deep underground coverage of 5G networks, achieving underground automated inspections and remote control of fully mechanized mining faces, reducing the number of workers at underground coal mining faces by 60%. At the same time, Huawei's 5G applications in cement, chemical and other industries have also achieved good results.

ZTE has joined hands with more than 500 partners to explore hundreds of innovative applications in 15 fields, including industry, metallurgy and steel, transportation, mining, digital cities, cultural tourism, and media, giving birth to a group of bright digital stars, setting digital benchmarks for various industries, and achieving "one point of success, multiple points of replication". The Baowu Zhanjiang Steel, Tianjin Port, and Nanjing Binjiang Factory, which it has participated in building, have all achieved large-scale replication. At the same time, the products, applications, and solutions such as AGV, cloud PLC, machine vision, steel private network, and mining private network have also matured and been commercially used.

UNISOC has always attached great importance to the application and promotion of 5G in the industry market. In order to promote the application of 5G technology in a wider range of fields, UNISOC's V516 platform supports innovative technologies required by the industry, such as high-precision timing of the 3GPP R16 protocol, multi-network slicing of 5G terminals, and 5G LAN (5G industry local area network), based on industry needs.

Industry users have the most say in the value of 5G applications. Taking the power industry as an example, under the guidance of the Action Plan, Shandong Electric Power took the lead in building the world's first provincial 5G power demonstration network in 2021, covering 17 cities in Shandong Province, deploying 20 sets of UPF equipment, accessing more than 1,000 power 5G terminals, and applying more than 2,000 base stations. It is the industry 5G private network with the widest coverage and largest application scale in China, which strongly supports the company's new power system construction.

Xu Qun, a leading talent of State Grid Corporation of China and director of the Energy Internet 5G Application Technology Laboratory of State Grid Shandong Electric Power Company, said that State Grid Qingdao Power Supply Company, as a frontier power enterprise in 5G innovative applications, relied on the Energy Internet 5G Application Technology Laboratory to take the lead in completing the research and development and pilot application of systems such as 5G+ UAV intelligent inspection and 5G+ live working robots in China, and took the lead in completing the technical verification of the pilot docking between the power grid SPN and China Mobile SPN in China, as well as the actual measurement of 5G+ millisecond-level precise load control and live measurement experiments. In addition, it is also at the forefront of the industry in terms of distributed photovoltaic power regulation based on 5G communication technology and 5G 700MHz frequency band distributed photovoltaic communication access. Related solutions have promoted the large-scale development of 5G applications in the power industry.

From “1 to N”, what are the challenges?

At present, the large-scale promotion of 5G industry applications and the transformation of related industries are affected by 5G technology, industry development maturity, the industry's own digital foundation, reform needs, industry development laws, etc. Du Jiadong believes that the in-depth application of 5G in the industry still faces the following problems.

First, the integration of 5G and the industry faces "three major challenges", namely, the large differences in the digital foundation of the industry, the large differences in the application needs of the industry, and the difficulty of integration and transformation. At present, the digital foundation of China's industry varies greatly. Some are in the 2.0 stage, some are in the 2.5 stage, and some are in the 3.0 stage. The digital foundations of different enterprises in the same industry are also different, and different industries and enterprises face different problems. Therefore, their needs for 5G are also different, and the transformation of applications is more personalized, which increases the difficulty of 5G application promotion in enterprises.

Second, the business model has not yet been formed. At present, the integration of 5G and the industry is still in its early stages, and the integration of IT and OT industries has just begun. The two industries need to run in, find their respective business positioning, and explore a "win-win" business model, especially a business model for cooperation with small and medium-sized enterprises.

Third, the 5G application ecosystem needs to be built, and the supply cost should be reduced. At present, 5G application solutions, industry terminals, industry customized modules, etc. are generally in the customized development stage, mostly concentrated in large enterprises. Due to various factors such as technical barriers, R&D costs, and market fragmentation, there are relatively few small and medium-sized enterprises engaged in 5G application and terminal R&D, and the 5G application ecosystem is still in its early stages of development.

In response to the above problems, Du Jiadong believes that the pace and promotion strategy of 5G integration should be customized according to the different industry foundations and reform needs, and a classified approach should be adopted. In terms of industrial ecology, it is necessary to cultivate and develop the emerging 5G to B industry and build a 5G to B industrial system. In particular, after the integration of 5G and the industry, new industrial links such as 5G solutions, integrated terminals, streamlined chips, and industry-customized networks will be generated. It is necessary to give play to the leading role of the government and leading enterprises, increase investment in technology research, standard setting, and industrial R&D, and at the same time build a cross-border public service platform system to reduce the difficulty and technical threshold of 5G integrated products and solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises, and accelerate the formation of the 5G to B industrial ecology. In terms of business model exploration, 5G application innovation requires costs, and 5G business exploration also requires costs. Therefore, it is necessary to give play to the innovation enthusiasm and innovation responsibility of large and medium-sized state-owned enterprises, "go one step further" in business exploration, and explore more forms of sustainable business models, so as to spread the value of 5G to small and medium-sized enterprises.

In addition, the needs of thousands of industries for 5G are different. So how should enterprises accurately deploy 5G applications in the process of large-scale development from "from 1 to N"? Xiao Wei, director of 5G private network business of China Business Department of Ericsson (China) Communications Co., Ltd., believes that before solving the personalized needs of each enterprise user, it is better to return to the essence of business, that is, to create value for the enterprise - "improving quality, reducing costs, increasing efficiency, green, and safe". As the core innovative technology in the "new infrastructure", 5G needs to be integrated with the actual scenarios of the enterprise and form new production models, operation models, and business models to achieve breakthroughs. There is also a very important link between new technologies and new models, that is, the way of thinking. Each industry has a different development history and environment, which also forms the mindset and path dependence of the industry. The pain of change and the difficulty of transformation lies in how to make multiple parties understand and learn from each other in cooperation, step out of their respective "comfort zones" to reach a consensus, and jointly innovate. Only in this way can we bridge the gap between the early market and the mainstream market of 5G applications, create value for corporate customers, and enable users to go from "wanting to use it, but not knowing how to use it, and not daring to use it" to "wanting to use it, knowing how to use it, and daring to use it", thus achieving a breakthrough from "1 to N".

As the Chinese saying goes, “The tide is high and the two banks are wide, the wind is strong and the sails are hoisted.” As the surging energy of 5G begins to empower thousands of industries, ICT companies should seize the key period of large-scale application, fully unleash the enabling role of 5G in the development of the digital economy, promote construction through use, and promote construction and use simultaneously, to ensure that my country's 5G will move forward steadily and continue to lead the way.