5G development still has a long way to go

The construction and development of 5G has gone through three years. Over the past three years, China's 5G construction and development achievements are obvious to all: as of April this year, my country has built and opened 1.615 million 5G base stations, built the world's largest 5G network, the world's largest 5G co-construction and sharing network, and developed 413 million 5G mobile phone users; 5G is forming a number of typical application scenarios with commercial value in multiple industries such as industry, medical care, education, and transportation, covering 40 of the 97 major categories of the national economy, with a total of 23,000 application cases; 5G industry virtual private networks have reached 5,325, becoming an important infrastructure to support the digital transformation of my country's industries.

It can be said that the communications industry has delivered a brilliant answer in the construction and development of 5G. This answer has also effectively refuted those who questioned 5G at the beginning, and positively affirmed the achievements made by China's 5G in the past three years. It has positive significance for industrial development, especially for the high-quality development of the digital economy that the current government is fully promoting. However, it is too early to declare 5G a success, and there is still a long way to go for the development of 5G. After all, how to further reduce the cost of construction and operation, how to break through the barriers of cross-industry collaboration, how to cultivate "killer" applications, and how to replicate and promote 5G applications from leading industries to thousands of industries... These are the problems that the communications industry needs to solve next.

First, the results of 5G to B industry applications need to be deepened. As mentioned above, domestic 5G to B services have been widely used in some fields, especially in the field of industrial Internet vigorously promoted by the government. 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. Some scenarios have begun to be replicated in batches. However, it is undeniable that the breadth and depth of 5G to B industry applications need to be strengthened. Judging from the transformation of the "Blooming Cup" 5G application innovation results, the efficiency of 5G application commercial transformation and large-scale replication needs to be improved, and the application efficiency of 5G is not very high. 5G empowerment of thousands of industries has just started.

Second, 5G to C applications need a comprehensive breakthrough. As of April, the three major operators have developed a total of 413 million 5G users, which is not a data to be proud of. China currently has 1.643 billion mobile users. Why, after three years of development, 5G users only account for 1/4 of the total number of users? Statistics show that the 5G diversion of the three major telecom operators accounts for more than 20% of the total mobile traffic. 5G traffic in key areas such as Guangdong, Zhejiang, Shanghai, and Beijing accounts for more mobile traffic, reaching more than 30%. But who took away the other 70% of the traffic? Is it 4G or Wi-Fi? These two points show that consumers are still not very "cold" for 5G applications. The key to why users are not "cold" for 5G is that 5G has no applications that make users shine. How to make the real "killer" applications in the 5G era appear as soon as possible is an urgent problem to be solved in the current communications industry.

Third, how can 5G play a greater role in stabilizing growth and driving high-quality development of the digital economy? In the first half of this year, the COVID-19 epidemic recurred, which had a serious impact on economic development. The State Council recently issued a "Package of Policy Measures to Stabilize the Economy" including 33 items in 6 aspects to ensure that the epidemic is prevented, the economy is stabilized, and development is safe. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology also held a special video and telephone conference to boost the industrial economy, further pointing out that new infrastructure such as 5G and industrial Internet should be deployed in advance. According to the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, by 2025, 5G can drive network investment of about 1.2 trillion yuan and directly drive total economic output of about 10.1 trillion yuan. After three years of construction and development, 5G has laid a good foundation in network facilities, user popularization, industry practice, and commercial operations, and has become the foundation of my country's digital economy in the new era. Therefore, how to give full play to the connection capability of 5G's "information artery" and the digital empowerment effect is crucial to stabilizing the economy and promoting economic growth.