Review of the top ten 5G trends in 2021: coverage, applications, and a future

Looking back at the communications industry this year, 5G is still popular, and as 5G network construction goes deeper and deeper, applications are beginning to blossom everywhere, penetrating into thousands of industries. The value of 5G is also highly valued by users in vertical industries and is being continuously explored by all parties involved in the application.

C114 takes into account factors such as industry attention, number of readers of related news, popularity of comments, etc., and takes stock of the top ten 5G trends in 2021, allowing the industry to feel the increasingly full-bodied 5G era.

1. The number of 5G base stations exceeds one million

According to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, in September this year, my country's 5G base stations exceeded one million. By the end of October this year, my country had built a total of 1.291 million 5G base stations, covering all urban areas above the prefecture level, more than 97% of counties and districts, and 50% of townships and towns. In addition, the number of 5G terminal connections exceeded 470 million, and the user penetration rate reached 28.7%.

This number leads the world. China has gone from "blank in 1G, follow-up in 2G, breakthrough in 3G, and parallel development in 4G" to "leading in 5G", which has become a reality, thanks to the efforts of operators and the entire industry chain. As the scale of 5G networks and users expands, "quantitative change leads to qualitative change", and it is believed that China will also take the lead in 5G applications in the future.

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2. 5G applications flourish

The value of 5G lies in its applications. Compared with previous generations of technology, 5G has penetrated from the C-end personal market to the B-end industry market. By 2021, China will have tens of thousands of 5G industry application cases and more than 2,300 5G virtual private networks. 5G applications in typical industries are forming a replicable business model.

Not only operators and equipment vendors such as Huawei and ZTE have entered the industry market, but also chip manufacturers such as Qualcomm and Spreadtrum have joined hands with partners to launch customized 5G modules and industry terminals. The 5G Application Industry Array released the "5G Industry Module Classification White Paper", calling on the industry to solve the problems of high production costs of 5G modules, market fragmentation, insufficient product adaptability, and difficulties in building an ecosystem, and accelerate the implementation of the 5G industry.

3. Radio and Television officially enters the market

In 2019, when 5G licenses were issued, China Radio and Television also obtained a license, officially becoming one of the four major operators. However, due to its own incomplete integration and other reasons, the 5G deployment of radio and television was slow. In 2021, China Radio and Television reached a strategic cooperation with China Mobile and officially started the 5G network construction.

The three major operators have become four major operators, which means that users have one more choice. The addition of the 700M "golden frequency band" has also enriched the dimensions of 5G network construction and can provide users with better 5G network coverage. Radio and Television 5G is worth looking forward to.

4. 5G diversion ratio exceeds 30%

In the second half of the year, operators in Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Kunming, Wuhan and other places announced that the 5G diversion ratio exceeded 30%, among which Zhejiang Mobile achieved the feat of breaking 30% in the province's 5G diversion ratio. The proportion of 5G traffic in the total network traffic is increasing.

Behind this data is the gradual popularization of 5G terminals, the increasing utilization of 5G networks, and the accelerated activation of 5G network value. The formation of users' 5G usage habits will give birth to more 5G "killer applications".

5. The “dual carbon” goal is an obligation

The communications industry is a major energy consumer, and energy conservation and consumption reduction in communications rooms and data centers have always been the direction of the industry's efforts. As the country puts forward the long-term goals of "carbon peak and carbon neutrality", the communications industry must also take action to contribute to the "dual carbon".

This month, four national ministries and commissions issued the "Implementation Plan for Implementing the Carbon Peak and Carbon Neutrality Goals to Promote the Green and High-Quality Development of New Infrastructures such as Data Centers and 5G", with the goal of basically forming a green and intensive integrated operation pattern for data centers and 5G by 2025. The combination of 5G and the "dual carbon" goals has a bright future.

6. 5G news, high opening and low closing

The most eye-catching news about 5G in 2020 must be "5G messaging". The three major operators jointly released a 5G messaging white paper, stating that it will bring customers new experiences such as multimedia messaging, business messaging, intelligent messaging, interactive services, and security and anti-counterfeiting. Some even say that 5G messaging is the "first 5G killer application."

However, nearly two years have passed, and 5G messaging has been a bit of a "loud thunder, little rain", with only the sound of footsteps, but no one coming down. Although operators have achieved pilot and commercial use in many industries, users' perception of 5G messaging is still extremely limited. Perhaps by 2022, 5G messaging will be able to raise its head and bring good news to users.

7. 5G Slicing, Put into Practice

5G network slicing, referred to as 5G slicing, is an important technological innovation for the implementation of 5G industry applications. The three major operators are all working on 5G slicing to unleash the potential of 5G in multiple scenarios and bring personalized and customized network services. Huawei and ZTE are the biggest supporters of 5G networks and have already conducted pilots in specific projects with operators.

On the terminal chip side, Spreadtrum has made outstanding contributions. Just this month, Spreadtrum and China Unicom Research Institute jointly developed the world's first 5G module multi-slice solution, which shifted many functions that were originally required on the terminal side to the module side. This is expected to significantly reduce the development investment of 5G industry terminals, thereby lowering the threshold for industry users to use 5G slices. With the deepening of 5G applications in the industry, the value of 5G slices will become more prominent.

8. 5G R16 Ready

As a new generation standard for 5G evolution, the 5G R16 standard was frozen in July 2020, and there has not been much news about commercial deployment in more than a year. In fact, the industry is actively promoting the commercialization of the 5G R16 standard system, especially at the chip level. As the standard matures, the technical characteristics of 5G R16 will be able to better promote the implementation of 5G in vertical industries.

In July this year, one year after the standard was frozen, Unisoc took the lead in shouting out the slogan "5G R16 Ready" and successfully completed the world's first eMBB+uRLLC+IIoT end-to-end service verification based on the 3GPP R16 standard with China Unicom, laying the foundation for the commercial use of 5G R16. Qualcomm and MediaTek have also successively launched platforms that support 5G R16. With the support of chip manufacturers, 2022 will be the first year of 5G R16 commercialization. The popularization of R16 and uRLLC technology is expected to promote the Metaverse from concept to reality.

9. R17 RedCap, revealing its true appearance

RedCap (Reduced Capability) is a new type of 5G terminal specially researched by 3GPP in the 5G R17 stage. It can be called lightweight 5G, and is also called "5G Youth Edition". RedCap reduces the maximum system bandwidth, simplifies the number of RF links, MIMO and modulation methods, reduces costs and saves power consumption, and meets the 5G needs of wearable, video surveillance, sensor and other industry scenarios.

Although it is a "newcomer" and still somewhat unfamiliar in the industry, the application prospects of RedCap cannot be underestimated and can be compared to NB-IoT in the 4G era. China is already ahead. The 5G application industry has established a "streamlined chip project team" and has joined hands with leading chip companies such as Spreadtrum to explore the research and development route of domestic 5G streamlined chips based on the research content of 3GPP's R17 RedCap, and influence the standard definition of 3GPP in R17/R18 RedCap, which can be said to grasp the future.

10. 6G is on the rise, with China taking the lead

The development of the communications industry is always a matter of time. In the 4G era, 5G became a hot word in the industry. After 5G was commercialized, the concept of 6G followed. On the one hand, the standardization of 5G-Advanced is being carried out intensively in 3GPP, with operators, equipment manufacturers such as Huawei and ZTE, and chip manufacturers such as Spreadtrum all participating; on the other hand, the layout of 6G has also started in advance. The "6G Communication Technology Patent Development Status Report" released by the State Intellectual Property Office of China in April this year shows that China is the main source of 6G communication technology patent applications, accounting for 35% of patent applications.

Although 6G is still far away, Chinese manufacturers are already ahead. Huawei, ZTE, CITIC, Spreadtrum and other 5G core enterprises will also take the lead in the 6G era. It is believed that the iterative evolution from 5G to 6G will be a wonderful journey.