Ministry of Industry and Information Technology: my country has built nearly one million 5G base stations covering all prefecture-level cities across the country

At present, the number of 5G terminal connections in my country accounts for more than 80% of the world. The financial reports for the first half of 2020 released by the three major operators show that China Mobile has 251 million 5G package users, with a penetration rate of 26.5%; China Telecom has 131 million 5G package users, with a penetration rate of 36.2%; China Unicom has 113 million 5G package users, with a penetration rate of 37%.

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Wang Juncheng, deputy director of the Digital Technology and Application Research Department of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, said that the number of 5G base stations in my country is about to exceed 1 million, which means that my country's large-scale networking capabilities have reached a new level. In the next step, my country's 5G network construction should adhere to the principle of moderate advancement and match the development path and rhythm of applications, so that "roads wait for cars" instead of "cars wait for roads".

Judging from the first half financial reports of the three operators, the investment in 5G networks of the three companies has slowed down, but this does not mean that 5G construction has slowed down. In their financial reports, the three operators emphasized that 5G investment will remain unchanged throughout the year, and 5G construction in the second half of the year will focus on wide coverage.

It is understood that the results of the just-concluded third phase of 5G base station bidding and procurement show that four operators including China Radio and Television will purchase a total of 722,000 5G base stations in 2021. In the first half of this year, China Mobile has opened 501,000 5G base stations, and China Telecom and China Unicom have opened 460,000 co-built and shared 5G base stations.

It is reported that this 5G base station procurement bidding is mainly low-frequency band equipment, which has the characteristics of wide coverage and low cost, and is more suitable for remote areas with sparse population. The high-frequency band 5G base stations purchased in the past have high capacity and large bandwidth, which are suitable for densely populated cities. This means that my country's 5G construction is developing in the direction of wide coverage and low cost.

Experts pointed out that my country's 5G network construction is currently in the stage of large-scale deployment. According to an estimate of 1.4 billion people, by the end of 2023, the number of 5G base stations will reach more than 2.5 million. Therefore, my country's 5G network construction will continue to advance in the next 2 to 3 years.

The World 5G Conference is the world's first international event in the 5G field, held for the first time in Beijing in 2019. The World 5G Conference has witnessed and helped the process of 5G from accelerating construction, deepening application to integrated development, attracted extensive attention and participation from all walks of life and many industry professionals, and is increasingly becoming an important communication platform for promoting the development of the global 5G industry and innovation in application scenarios.