Operators' operating data in April: 5G package users increased by 21.16 million, totaling about 870 million

The three major operators released their operating data for April this year. Although some operators have updated the rules for data release, they have maintained a consistent tacit understanding in terms of 5G packages. It can be seen that the three major operators attach great importance to 5G package users.

From the data, China Mobile still has the largest net increase in the number of 5G package customers, reaching 10.365 million; China Telecom is second, with a net increase of 6.68 million; according to estimates, China Unicom's 5G package users increased by 4.111 million in April. In other words, in April, the three major operators' 5G package users increased by a total of 21.16 million, and the total number reached about 870 million. It should be pointed out that in April, China Telecom's 5G users increased by 3.05%, ranking first in growth rate, and the user penetration rate was as high as 57.17%.

Each has its own focus, but the overall trend is positive

Data shows that in April, the number of users of 5G packages of the three major operators continued their strong growth momentum, and the positive trend remained unchanged.

In April, China Mobile's mobile customer base decreased by 242,000, with a total of 966.396 million users. In the same month, China Mobile's 5G package customers increased by 10.365 million, totaling 476.916 million. The number of wired broadband customers increased by 2.168 million, totaling 251.261 million.

Data shows that China Telecom's mobile user base increased by 780,000 in April, with a total of 380.32 million mobile users. Among them, the net increase in 5G package users was 6.68 million, with a total of 217.43 million 5G package users. In terms of wired broadband business, China Telecom's wired broadband user base increased by 780,000 in the month, with a total of 173.89 million wired broadband users.

As of April 2022, China Unicom's "Big Connection" users have reached 787 million, of which 5G package users have reached 175 million, and IoT terminal connections have reached 320 million. As of March 2022, China Unicom's 5G package users have reached 171 million, and IoT terminal connections have reached 313 million.

This also means that the number of new 5G package users and IoT terminal connections of China Unicom in April were 4.111 million and 7.418 million respectively.

In terms of innovative applications, as of April 2022, the number of China Unicom's 5G industry virtual private network service customers reached 1,552.

Continuously improve 5G user satisfaction

So far, my country has built nearly 1.6 million 5G base stations, becoming the first country in the world to build a 5G network on a large scale based on the independent networking model. It can be said that 5G has entered the daily life of the people. However, at this stage, 5G users have mixed opinions on the perceived quality of the network, which has also caused hesitation among users who want to apply for 5G packages.

At this stage, what is the quality of my country's 5G network? According to official news from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, in the first quarter of 2022, my country's average 5G user download speed was 304.8Mbps, and the average 4G user download speed was 27.8Mbps. The 5G download speed remained more than ten times that of 4G.

Actual data from the 5G cloud testing platform show that in the first quarter of 2022, my country's average 5G user download rate was 304.8Mbps (the average user upload rate was 49.6Mbps), the average 4G user download rate was 27.8Mbps (the average user upload rate was 2.9Mbps), and the average Wi-Fi user download rate was 179.7Mbps (the average user upload rate was 36.3Mbps).

From the perspective of user experience by province, the average download speed of 5G users in Heilongjiang, Yunnan, Inner Mongolia, Hainan, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Xinjiang, Zhejiang, Fujian, Shandong and other provinces is relatively high, with the highest reaching 358.8Mbps. The average upload speed of 5G users in Yunnan, Inner Mongolia, Shandong, Hainan, Heilongjiang, Gansu, Shanghai, Hunan, Xinjiang, Henan and other provinces is relatively high, with the highest reaching 69.8Mbps.

From the user experience of key cities (31 provincial capitals and 5 independently planned cities), Harbin, Qingdao, Kunming, Ningbo, Shijiazhuang, Urumqi, Haikou, Shenyang, Jinan, Shanghai and other cities have high average 5G user download speeds, with the highest reaching 389.2Mbps. Jinan, Kunming, Harbin, Zhengzhou, Haikou, Guiyang, Guangzhou, Dalian, Urumqi, Shanghai and other cities have high average 5G user upload speeds, with the highest reaching 76.7Mbps.

It is reported that my country's 5G SA network has basically achieved nationwide coverage, and the 5G SA function is enabled by default for new 5G mobile terminals. According to the actual measurement data of the 5G cloud testing platform, the SA connection ratio of my country's 5G mobile terminals is 76.8%, and the NSA connection ratio is 23.2%. Among them, the SA connection ratio of mainstream mobile terminals such as Honor, Samsung, OPPO, Huawei, Realme, and iPhone exceeds 90%.

Another report released by China Telecom Research Institute on the quality of 5G user network perception also thoroughly evaluated the current real 5G network situation in my country. In the third and fourth quarters of 2021, China Telecom Research Institute selected nine scenarios in 38 cities, including urban trunk roads, business districts, office buildings, administrative agencies, cultural centers, high-density residential areas, subway lines, ring roads and airport highways, high-speed rail stations and high-speed rail lines, to conduct large-sample tests on 5G network coverage, 5G users' use of VoLTE voice and Internet access, and Internet applications such as WeChat, Douyin Video, Tencent Video, HD Video, and Honor of Kings. The test mileage exceeded 30,000 kilometers and the total sampling volume exceeded 150 million.

The report shows that, overall, there is a large gap in 5G coverage between cities and great differences between scenarios; 5G outdoor coverage is excellent in urban main roads and high-frequency user scenarios such as business districts, office buildings, administrative agencies, and cultural centers, but indoor 5G coverage urgently needs to be optimized and improved; benefiting from the mature 4G network coverage and automatic fallback to 4G when there is no 5G, 5G users have excellent voice and Internet experience in various high-frequency usage scenarios.

Based on this, the report also makes the following suggestions for 5G network construction and optimization: First, in the core areas of cities, 5G network construction should be developed in depth, and the indoor and outdoor 5G network deep coverage and indoor optimization of high-frequency user scenarios should be strengthened. Second, operators can carry out independent research and development and ecological cooperation at the same time to accelerate the scale development of 5G innovative products and applications, and make content operation products and services such as ultra-high definition/AR/VR an accelerator for 5G value operation and perception improvement. Third, users' perception of the use of 5G networks is directly reflected in the network experience of head Internet applications. The location of local sinking servers of Internet applications, especially head applications, is also extremely important. Operators can strengthen cooperation and collaboration with Internet application service providers to improve the network experience of 5G users from end to end.