By the end of 2021, my country will have 10.1 5G base stations per 10,000 people

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology recently released the "2021 Communications Industry Statistical Bulletin" (hereinafter referred to as the "Bulletin"), which shows that as of the end of 2021, my country has built and opened a total of 1.425 million 5G base stations, accounting for more than 60% of the world's total, and the number of 5G base stations per 10,000 people has reached 10.1.

The "Communiqué" pointed out that the quality of development of the communications industry will be further improved in 2021. The construction, coverage and application of new information infrastructure such as 5G and gigabit optical networks will be comprehensively accelerated. Mobile Internet traffic will continue to grow rapidly, and the overall price of the industry will decline. At the same time, business revenue will continue to grow, laying a solid foundation for the development of the "14th Five-Year Plan".

Telecommunications business volume and revenue grew rapidly, achieving a good start

Data shows that in 2021, my country's telecommunications business revenue totaled 1.47 trillion yuan, up 8.0% year-on-year, achieving a higher growth level in the eight years since 2014, with a growth rate of 4.1 percentage points higher than the previous year. Among them, emerging digital services for enterprises such as cloud computing, big data, and data centers have developed rapidly, with revenue increasing by 27.8% over the previous year, driving telecommunications business revenue growth by 3.6 percentage points, and the contribution rate to telecommunications business revenue growth has risen to 44.5%, becoming the first driving force for revenue growth; fixed, mobile data and Internet services continue to play a stabilizing role, accounting for 61.5% of revenue, and contributing 39.4% to the growth of telecommunications business revenue.

Image source: Operation Monitoring and Coordination Bureau of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology

Calculated at the same unit price as last year, the total volume of telecommunications business for the whole year reached 1.7 trillion yuan, an increase of 27.8% over the previous year; calculated based on the total volume of telecommunications business and revenue, the comprehensive price of the telecommunications industry fell by 13.6% over the previous year. In 2021, the overall price of service consumption in my country rose by 0.9%, and the comprehensive price of the telecommunications industry continued to decline, playing a positive role in reducing the cost of production and living and promoting the development of the digital economy.

5G and Gigabit Fiber Network Construction Accelerates Network Supply Capacity

It is understood that in 2021, the entire industry will accelerate the construction of "dual gigabit", promote the development of national big data centers, build a new type of cloud-network integrated infrastructure, and continuously improve the supply capacity to enable the digital transformation of society.

By the end of 2021, my country has built and opened 1.425 million 5G base stations, built the world's largest 5G network, and achieved coverage of all prefecture-level cities, more than 98% of county towns, and 80% of townships and towns in the country, and gradually extended to rural areas with conditions and needs. The total number of 5G base stations in my country accounts for more than 60% of the world; the number of 5G base stations per 10,000 people has reached 10.1, nearly doubled from the end of last year. The annual investment in 5G was 184.9 billion yuan, accounting for 45.6% of the investment in telecommunications fixed assets.

Image source: Operation Monitoring and Coordination Bureau of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology

More than 300 cities across the country have started the construction of gigabit fiber-optic broadband networks, and the annual investment in Internet broadband access has increased by 40% over the previous year. By the end of 2021, 7.86 million 10G PON ports have been built, with the ability to cover 300 million households. Basic telecommunications companies have strengthened cloud network construction and deployment, built ubiquitous integrated, cloud-edge collaborative computing networks, and improved the ability of cloud-network integrated services, doubling the scale of data center customers in 2021.

The user scale continues to expand, laying a solid foundation for digital transformation

As of the end of 2021, the scale of mobile phone users in my country reached 1.643 billion, and the population penetration rate rose to 116.3 units per 100 people, higher than the global average of 104.3 units per 100 people. Among them, 4G and 5G users reached 1.069 billion and 355 million respectively, accounting for 86.7% of the total number of mobile phone users. As of the end of 2021, the number of fixed broadband users in my country with access speeds of 100Mbps and above reached 498 million, accounting for 93% of broadband users, an increase of 3.1 percentage points from the end of the previous year. The total bandwidth of broadband users reached 139.41 million Gbps, an increase of 60.6% over the previous year, and the average contracted bandwidth per household reached 266Mbps per household. The continuous increase in the proportion of high-bandwidth users has laid a good foundation for innovation in mobile Internet applications and the digital transformation of the industry.

Information technology accelerates the empowerment of traditional industries. There are more than 10,000 innovative cases of 5G industry applications, covering more than 20 national economic industries such as industry and medical care. The application links have penetrated from production auxiliary links to core links, and the typical application scenarios of "5G+Industrial Internet" have gradually evolved towards large-scale replication. By the end of 2021, there were 1.399 billion cellular Internet of Things users in my country, rapidly approaching the scale of mobile phone users, and the gap between the two has rapidly narrowed from 458 million in 2020 to 244 million in 2021. IoT terminals are widely used in smart public utilities, smart manufacturing, smart transportation and other fields. The number of IoT terminals deployed in these three key areas reached 314 million, 254 million and 218 million, respectively.

Mobile Internet traffic is growing rapidly, and traffic consumption potential is being released

Image source: Operation Monitoring and Coordination Bureau of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology

In 2021, the annual mobile Internet access traffic reached 221.6 billion GB, an increase of 33.9% over the previous year. The average monthly mobile Internet access traffic per household (DOU) reached 13.36GB/household/month, of which the DOU in December reached 14.72GB/household, a record high.

Under the influence of the COVID-19 epidemic, the penetration rate of contactless services has increased significantly, and users have become more dependent on mobile Internet applications such as online shopping and online office. In 2020 and 2021, the proportion of mobile Internet users in my country to mobile phone users was 84.8% and 86.2% respectively, and the penetration rate increased by 2.3 and 1.4 percentage points respectively over the previous year. Previously, the penetration rate was basically stable in the range of 80%-82% from 2016 to 2019. Thanks to the improvement of mobile terminal functions and the continuous acceleration of the network, high-traffic application scenarios such as short videos and live broadcasts are more abundant, and the consumption potential of mobile traffic is further released. In terms of growth rate, under the base of the five-year average growth rate of mobile Internet traffic from 2016 to 2020 of 109%, it still achieved a high growth rate of 33.9%; in terms of total volume, mobile traffic consumption in 2021 was 23.6 times that of 2016.

Universal services continue to deepen and co-construction and sharing are effective

According to reports, the entire industry will continue to promote universal telecommunications services in 2021, and all administrative villages across the country will achieve "broadband access in every village". Broadband networks will gradually extend to key areas such as rural population settlements, production operation areas, and transportation routes. The level of network coverage in remote rural areas will continue to improve, and the scale of rural broadband users will continue to expand. By the end of 2021, the total number of rural broadband access users reached 158 million, a net increase of 15.81 million households over the end of the previous year. The average download speed of rural optical fiber exceeded 100Mbps, achieving "same network and same speed" as cities.

Image source: Operation Monitoring and Coordination Bureau of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology

The whole industry deepens collaboration, continues to build and share together, and promotes green and low-carbon development. In 2021, the number of jointly built and shared 5G base stations reached 840,000, accounting for 58.9% of all 5G base stations.

In addition, in 2021, the communications industry carried out aging-friendly transformation for special groups such as the elderly, continued to carry out targeted fee reductions, special rectification of the Internet industry and special rectification of APPs, and continuously improved service levels. Communications big data plays an important role in efficiently supporting normalized epidemic prevention and control, and effectively serves the overall economic and social situation.