2021 Information and Communication Industry Events

ICT industry recovers

According to statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, as of October this year, my country's telecommunications business revenue totaled 1,225.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.2%, 5 percentage points higher than the 3.2% growth rate in the same period last year. Judging from the financial reports of the three major operators in the first three quarters of 2021, China Telecom's revenue and net profit both achieved double-digit growth, China Unicom's net profit achieved double-digit growth, and China Mobile continued to maintain its position as the number one in terms of total operating revenue and net profit.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released three major "14th Five-Year Plans" including the integration of industrialization and information technology

On November 30, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "14th Five-Year Plan for the Deep Integration of Informatization and Industrialization", "14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Software and Information Technology Services", and "14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the Big Data Industry". According to these plans, by 2025, the business revenue of my country's software companies above a certain scale will exceed 14 trillion yuan, and the estimated scale of the big data industry will exceed 3 trillion yuan.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and ten other departments issued the "5G Application "Sailing" Action Plan"

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and ten other departments issued the "5G Application "Set Sail" Action Plan", which clearly stated that by 2023, the development level of 5G applications in my country will be significantly improved, and the comprehensive strength will continue to increase. Create a new ecosystem with deep integration of information technology, communication technology, and OT operation technology, achieve breakthroughs in the depth and breadth of 5G applications in key areas, build dual pillars of technology industry and standard system, further improve basic capabilities such as network, platform, and security, and gradually form a situation where 5G applications "set sail".

my country has opened more than 1.3 million 5G base stations and 497 million 5G terminal users

On December 20, the National Industrial and Information Technology Work Conference was held in Beijing. The conference pointed out that the high-quality development of the information and communication industry has achieved new results, with more than 1.3 million 5G base stations built and put into operation, 497 million 5G terminal users, and the annual task of precise telecommunications fee reduction exceeded. The communication difficulties in poor areas have been historically solved. Data shows that as of the end of October 2021, 5G networks cover all urban areas above the prefecture level, more than 97% of counties and districts, and 50% of townships and towns in the country, and the number of industry virtual private networks exceeds 2,300.

Gigabit Speed

The 2021 "Government Work Report" proposed to increase the construction of 5G networks and gigabit optical networks and enrich application scenarios. Subsequently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology officially released the "Dual Gigabit" Network Collaborative Development Action Plan (2021-2023), with the goal of basically building a "dual gigabit" network infrastructure that fully covers urban areas and qualified townships in three years, and realizing that fixed and mobile networks generally have "gigabit to the home" capabilities. According to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, as of the end of November 2021, the total number of fixed Internet broadband access users of the three basic telecommunications companies reached 535 million, of which 33.86 million were fixed Internet broadband access users with access speeds of 1000M and above, a net increase of 27.46 million households over the end of the previous year.

Strictly guard against "telecommunications network fraud"

Since the beginning of this year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has intercepted more than 1 billion fraud-related calls and text messages, and organized centralized investigations and disposal of 64.41 million high-risk phone cards. The real-name system for phone calls has been further implemented, and more than 24.55 million high-risk phone cards have been subject to "secondary real-person authentication". Technical prevention measures have been continuously strengthened, and a 12381 fraud-related early warning and dissuasion text message system has been established. Together with the public security organs, 820,000 potential victims have been proactively discovered to minimize the risk of people being deceived.

The three major telecom operators return to the A-share market

As the Sino-US game continues, China's three major telecom operators have delisted from the US stock market. China Telecom and China Mobile have successively submitted A-share IPO applications. The three major operators have gathered in the A-share market, setting a record for the largest IPO fundraising in the past decade. The return of China Telecom and China Mobile to the A-share market means that the three major operator giants have completed the listing goals of A+H shares, which will help broaden the financing channels of the three major operators and promote the deep layout of 5G business in the future. At the same time, leveraging the A-share market, the radiation and driving effect of the three major operators on the entire communications industry will also be more significant.

China Radio and Television fully launched

In 2021, China Radio and Television, as the "fourth largest operator", has achieved remarkable results. China Radio and Television officially launched the 700MHz frequency migration, and the co-construction and sharing work with China Mobile has also entered the substantive operation stage. It is reported that China Radio and Television and China Mobile plan to jointly build 480,000 5G base stations from 2021 to 2022, and it is expected that the deployment of 200,000 base stations will be completed by the end of this year, and another 280,000 base stations will be built in 2022. In addition, China Radio and Television is deploying and promoting the procurement of 5G core network projects and network cloud resource pool equipment to accelerate 5G construction.

Global chip shortage continues

As the heart of many technological products, chips are still in serious shortage this year. The supply chain crisis caused by chip shortages is becoming increasingly difficult to control. Goldman Sachs analysts said that the chip shortage has affected 169 industries, including mobile phones, automobiles, home appliances, and medical devices, to some extent. As for when the chip crisis will ease, TSMC President Wei Zhejia said that the tight chip production capacity will continue throughout 2022. Intel CEO expects the chip shortage to continue until 2023. Qualcomm CEO Amon believes that the global chip shortage is easing and the situation is expected to improve in 2022.

Meng Wanzhou returns to China

The highly-watched Meng Wanzhou case came to a successful conclusion in September. On September 24, local time, the U.S. Department of Justice reached a deferred prosecution agreement with Meng Wanzhou and notified Canada to withdraw its extradition request. The Canadian court immediately terminated the extradition procedure, exempted Meng Wanzhou from all bail conditions and released her. Meng Wanzhou is free to leave Canada. At 21:50 Beijing time on September 25, the CA552 flight that Meng Wanzhou was on landed safely at Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport.