The three major operators have invested 477.2 billion in 5G, unleashing the power of the digital economy engine

In fact, 2022 is another peak year for 5G investment and network construction. China Mobile and China Telecom stated at their 2021 performance briefings that China Mobile's 5G-related capital expenditures in 2022 will be about 110 billion yuan, and China Telecom expects 5G network investment to reach 34 billion yuan in 2022. It can be seen that operators are appropriately deploying new infrastructure construction such as 5G ahead of time. With the release of the "14th Five-Year Plan" Information and Communication Industry Development Plan and the "14th Five-Year Plan" Digital Economy Development Plan, and the official launch of national-level projects such as "East Data West Computing", 5G is setting sail, and the future is even more promising.

Jointly build and share 5G development to “emerge from cocoon into butterfly”

Over the past three years, telecom operators' 5G capital expenditure has remained high. It is worth noting that in the face of the high cost of 5G network construction, operators have further moved from "separate operations" to co-construction and sharing, playing a "team game". China Telecom and China Unicom implemented the 3.5G+2.1G dual-frequency collaborative network construction strategy, taking into account competitiveness and reducing investment, and the integration of the two parties' resource endowments achieved "1+1>2"; China Mobile and China Broadcasting Corporation developed a "network + content" ecosystem around the golden frequency band 700MNz, pushing the "three-network integration" to a new level.

China's 5G has entered a critical period of large-scale application. According to the data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, as of now, my country has built and put into operation 1.615 million 5G base stations, and has built the world's largest 5G network. The total number of 5G mobile phone users exceeds 413 million. 5G is playing 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 total number of 5G application cases exceeds 20,000.

Application of Yangfan digital economy engine power is gradually released

5G is an important information infrastructure and an important support for the digital transformation of the economy and society. According to the data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, in 2021, 5G will directly drive a total economic output of 1.3 trillion yuan and an economic added value of about 300 billion yuan. In 2025, my country's cumulative investment in 5G network construction will reach 1.2 trillion yuan, which will drive related investment of more than 3.5 trillion yuan, directly create more than 3 million jobs, and drive more than 8 trillion yuan of emerging consumption, forming a trillion-level 5G-related product and service market.

At present, typical applications based on 5G technology can be seen everywhere. Applications such as 5G smart campus have begun to take shape; more than 600 tertiary hospitals have carried out 5G+ emergency first aid, remote diagnosis, health management and other applications; 5G applications such as augmented reality tour guides and 4K/8K live broadcasts are developing rapidly in the field of information consumption; the market potential of new products such as mobile cloud, 5G messaging, ultra-high-definition video, VR/AR, and cloud games is gradually emerging. In addition, 5G application scenarios in vertical industries such as industrial manufacturing, mining, and ports are accelerating their scale implementation.

The development of mobile communication technology has promoted the continuous updating of content production and consumption forms on the application side, constantly giving rise to richer entertainment, work, and learning methods, and bringing about massive traffic consumption.

How to continue to expand in depth in the future

With the support of "China Speed", my country's 5G has entered a critical period of industrial upgrading, and deepening and expanding 5G coverage has become one of the key focuses in the next stage. "Although 5G has been covered in cities and towns across the country, there are still deficiencies in depth and breadth." Yang Guang, senior analyst of wireless operator strategy at Strategy Analytics, pointed out that depth mainly refers to indoor coverage, while breadth refers to coverage of rural and remote areas. This will be the problem that the three major operators are committed to solving in the past two years. Recently, Li Zhengmao, general manager of China Telecom, said that in the next 1-2 years, 5G construction will be mainly used to improve network coverage and capacity expansion, while striving to further improve the efficiency of 5G investment.

At the same time, continued leadership still requires evolution in development. The continuous evolution of 5G technology and its integrated innovation in applications have brought more possibilities for revolutionary changes in all walks of life. Both consumer and industry businesses have put forward further demands on 5G's network capabilities and 5G's innovation capabilities. In the future, the pace of 5G enhanced technology research and development and application development will be significantly accelerated. In the future, the pace of 5G enhanced technology research and development and application development will be significantly accelerated, and the pace of 5.5G layout of communication companies will also be accelerated. The clarification of the name and evolution roadmap of 5.5G means that the development of global 5G technology and standards has entered a new historical stage. Focusing on key goals such as higher performance, richer capabilities, more efficient intelligence, greener low-carbon, and easier popularization, 5.5G will continue to build an innovation chain and further enrich the industrial chain, forming a new pattern of mutual promotion and integrated development between the innovation chain and the industrial chain, and continuously creating new value for society.