The long-awaited 5G messaging trial will be launched in late October or early November

"China Unicom and China Telecom are working together to actively promote the development of 5G messaging business. It is currently in the friendly experience stage and it is expected that 5G messaging will start trial commercial use in late October or early November." Huang Changjian, deputy general manager of China Unicom Product Center, said at the "5G Message High-level Forum" held on September 29.

Since the three major operators jointly released the "5G Message White Paper" in April 2020, the industry has placed high hopes on 5G messaging to become a "killer" application of 5G. However, "there is only the sound of footsteps, but no one is seen coming down the stairs", and 5G messaging has not yet been trial-commercialized.

At this forum, Huang Changjian gave the latest timetable for 5G messages.

The trial commercialization is just an instruction, and the industrial implementation is still in progress

"We call on the three basic operators to launch the trial commercial use of 5G messages in a timely manner." At the forum, Chen Jiachun, a first-level inspector of the Information and Communications Development Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, expressed the voice of the entire industry.

During the round-table discussion, the three major operators sat on the same stage. When the trial commercialization will take place and how the specific progress will be became the focus of discussion.

China Unicom: Will increase the introduction of CSP and industry customers

Huang Changjian of China Unicom said that China Unicom and China Telecom have adopted a co-construction and sharing approach, and have built 510,000 5G base stations. With the solid foundation of 5G base stations, China Unicom is accelerating its development of 5G message platforms. Huang Changjian said that the 5G message MaaP platform has completed the construction of two regional centers in Jiangsu and Guangdong, supporting 10 million concurrent users, and can also provide customized MaaP capabilities to meet the needs of vertical industries. China Unicom has also achieved the intensive capabilities of text messages, multimedia messages, and video messages, and achieved cooperation with vertical industries through API interfaces.

Regarding the timetable for the trial commercialization of 5G messages, which the industry is very concerned about, Huang Changjian said that it will be officially launched around late October or early November. He added that China Unicom's next major political task is to support the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, when China Unicom will work closely with Samsung, Bank of China and others to launch 5G message services for the Winter Olympics.

Huang Changjian also sent a positive signal to industry partners. "In terms of open cooperation, China Unicom was a little cautious in the early testing phase, and will increase its efforts to attract CSPs and industry customers after entering the trial commercial phase," Huang Changjian said.

China Telecom: 5G message access application has been opened

Du Chengxin, general manager of the 5G message operation department of China Telecom's value-added service operation center, confirmed Huang Changjian's expectations: "China Telecom's progress is consistent with that of China Unicom. It is now in the final preparation stage for trial commercial verification. It is expected that the trial commercialization of 5G messages will be launched in due course in the fourth quarter."

Du Chengxin emphasized that the much-anticipated trial commercial release is actually just an instruction. There are more things to watch before and after the release, and China Telecom has been steadily advancing with practical actions. For example, China Telecom is ready to access CSP, and has recently notified provincial branches to start accepting partners' 5G message access applications in advance, entering the application preparation stage of 5G messages, and will begin reviewing trial commercial cooperation application information in October. After the trial commercial announcement, various specific applications are related to the users' personal experience, so China Telecom has now started application loading and is on the road to trial commercialization.

Du Chengxin emphasized that China Telecom has invested more in wide-coverage applications and looks forward to working with more partners to allow 5G messages to benefit thousands of industries and households.

China Mobile: Accelerate the implementation of trial commercialization with practical actions

China Mobile has made rapid progress in 5G messaging and has opened trial commercial connections to multiple provinces and cities. At the forum, Sheng Lingzhi, deputy general manager of Beijing Mobile's key customer center, introduced the specific progress of Beijing Mobile.

It is reported that Beijing Mobile has allocated important resources and worked with important customers to promote the 5G message pilot: 5G messages were put to the test during the two sessions; not long ago, the three major operators cooperated with Xinhua News Agency to launch the 5G message public shooting service, promoting the large-scale promotion of 5G messages among ordinary users; when new students enrolled in early September, Beijing Communication University used 5G messages to send school registration notifications.

Terminals and business models are two major problems to be solved

The commercialization of any business will face various complex problems, and 5G messaging is no exception. The guests at the meeting agreed that terminals and business models are the two major challenges that 5G messaging needs to solve.

"The difficulty of 5G messaging is that the terminals that support 5G messaging are relatively thin and the coverage is insufficient," China Mobile General Manager Jian Qin once said.

It is reported that many terminal manufacturers are hesitant and do not support 5G messages. "Things are different now. In the past, operators had a strong influence on the terminal link, and terminal manufacturers could actively cooperate with the functions required by operators. Now terminal manufacturers are more concerned about the size of the market and whether it is worth adding a certain function." An industry insider familiar with 5G messages said. He believes that the current platform supporting 10 million users is difficult to attract terminal manufacturers.

Some terminal manufacturers are optimistic about the prospects of 5G messaging and actively cooperate in terminal adaptation. For example, ZTE has launched 14 5G messaging terminals, and the entire series of ZTE 5G mobile phones launched in China after 2019 support 5G messaging. Huawei is planning a 5G messaging standard system, making good technical guarantees, and planning to evolve from Android to Hongmeng system. In the future, Hongmeng system will better support 5G messaging. In addition, terminal manufacturers such as Samsung, vivo, and Xiaomi also support 5G messaging.

Almost all industry issues ultimately point to commercial interests. Some analysts believe that the unclear business model and revenue prospects of 5G messaging are the reasons why terminal manufacturers are hesitant. "Who will pay for 5G messaging? How will operators and the industry chain share the profits? How can terminal manufacturers spread the profits without seeing the rabbit?"

To this end, Zhou Xiaojun, director of 5G messaging at ZTE, believes that the three steps of 5G messaging are to build it, use it, and improve it. After the 5G network and 5G messaging platform are built, only by allowing all walks of life to use 5G messaging can 5G messaging prosper and develop.

Fu Guoqiang, deputy leader of the 5G Message Working Group of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, suggested that based on the 5G Message Blossom Cup competition, attempts such as 5G message towns and 5G message small cities could be carried out to truly integrate 5G messages into people's lives.

Only in this way can 5G messages reproduce the glory of 5G SMS.

Some experts also believe that the top-down mechanism is very important in the promotion of 5G messages. "We call for 5G messages to be included in the scope of basic telecommunications services as soon as possible. Once the policy is clear, the industry will be reassured, and all problems such as terminals and CSPs will be solved." An expert said bluntly.