Three years after the license was issued, has 5G commercialization been successful?

​It coincides with the third anniversary of China's 5G licensing. On the occasion of the third anniversary, China Radio and Television, known as the fourth largest operator, launched a reservation activity for number 192. China Radio and Television's 5G commercial use has entered the final sprint stage. Next, let's review the progress of 5G licensing in the past three years!

Three-year results of 5G licensing

Since the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued 5G commercial licenses to China Telecom, China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Broadcasting Corporation on June 6, 2019, it has been nearly three years since my country issued 5G licenses. Over the past three years, 5G technological innovation has made continuous breakthroughs, the industrial ecosystem has steadily grown, the momentum for development has continued to increase, and 5G applications have flourished.

Over the past three years, with the joint efforts of all parties, my country's 5G innovation and development has made positive progress: First, the network scale has continued to expand. At present, my country has built nearly 1.6 million 5G base stations, covering all cities, county towns and 87% of townships and towns across the country, built 5,325 5G industry virtual private networks, and the total number of 5G mobile phone users has exceeded 413 million.

Second, the terminal market has developed steadily. As of the end of April, a total of 814 5G terminals in my country have obtained network access licenses, including 569 mobile terminals. From January to April 2022, the domestic market shipments of 5G mobile phones totaled 68.469 million units, and 78 new models were launched.

Third, the integration of applications has achieved results. Since the issuance of the "5G Application "Sailing" Action Plan (2021-2023)" last year, many places across the country have successively introduced 5G application-related policies to vigorously promote the large-scale application of 5G. 5G is playing an enabling role in many industries such as industry, medical care, education, and transportation, forming a number of 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 has exceeded 20,000.

Although my country's 5G industry has made certain progress, it is too early to declare 5G a success, and there is still a long way to go in the development of 5G.

Reduce construction and operation costs

5G base stations are the foundation of 5G development. A major problem with my country's 5G construction is the high cost. According to statistics, the cost of a 5G base station is about 400,000 to 500,000 yuan.

In addition, the ultra-low latency and ultra-large bandwidth emphasized by 5G technology rely on millimeter wave technology. However, global operators are currently promoting centimeter wave technology. The reason is that the cost of millimeter wave technology is too high and it is difficult to apply it on a large scale commercially.

According to data from China Tower, each 5G base station consumes 65 kWh of electricity per day on average, with an estimated cost of 65 yuan. Based on a total of 700,000 base stations, even with a conservative estimate, the three major operators will need to pay 16.5-21.5 billion yuan in electricity bills for 5G base stations each year. Such a huge electricity bill expenditure is also a considerable burden for operators. And these burdens eventually shifted to consumers, so we can see that the cost of 5G packages has always remained at a relatively high price.

5G to B industry application results need to be deepened

At present, the development of 5G to B business in China has achieved certain results, but it still needs to be deepened. Under the strong promotion of the government, in the field of industrial Internet, 5G has been widely used in steel, machinery, transportation, energy and other industries. There are more than 1,800 "5G+Industrial Internet" projects under construction, forming 20 typical application scenarios such as remote equipment control, machine vision quality inspection, and production energy efficiency control. The efficiency of batch replication, commercial transformation of 5G applications, and large-scale replication of some scenarios needs to be improved, and the application efficiency of 5G is not very high.

The new landscape of the 5G industry

The 5G industry has formed a new pattern in the process of development. As the technologies of the three major operators continue to mature, can the entry of the fourth operator, China Radio and Television, promote the further development of 5G? This has to talk about the technology owned by China Radio and Television.

According to the 5G spectrum planning plan released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in December 2018, China Telecom obtained 100MHz spectrum resources at 3.4-3.5GHz, China Unicom obtained 100MHz spectrum resources at 3.5-3.6Ghz, and China Mobile obtained 160MHz bandwidth at 2515-2675Mhz and 100MHz spectrum resources at 4.8-4.9Ghz. If radio and television use 700MHz for 5G wide coverage, the overall coverage cost will be reduced by about 30% compared with the three major operators.

The 700MHz frequency band is a low frequency band with wide signal coverage and strong penetration. The cost of 5G network construction is relatively low, and ultra-high-definition videos such as 4K and 8K are also important application areas for 5G commercial use.

Previously, after many rounds of negotiations, China Mobile and China Radio and Television signed the "Supplementary Agreement on Co-construction and Sharing of 5G Networks". The two parties jointly built and shared the 700MHz wireless network based on all 700MHz frequencies authorized by relevant national departments for use by China Radio and Television. China Mobile will first bear all construction costs of the 700MHz wireless network within the scope of the "Supplementary Agreement" and will first enjoy the ownership of the above-mentioned wireless network assets. Both parties will enjoy the right to use the 700MHz wireless network.

Since China Radio and Television and China Mobile share base stations, the experience of China Radio and Television users and China Mobile users on the 5G network is consistent. China Mobile can take advantage of this golden frequency band to improve the efficiency of 5G coverage across the country, and at the same time share the 700MHz resources of China Radio and Television. For China Radio and Television, relying on China Mobile to quickly complete the construction of infrastructure also reduces the initial investment cost. Following China Mobile to make up for the shortcomings of communication at the fastest speed is also a rational consideration and the best choice based on the actual situation.

With the large-scale application of 5G, "5G+" will play a greater role in the digital transformation of government and enterprises. Looking to the future, the 5G wave will continue to be integrated into thousands of industries and help the high-quality development of the economy and society. ​