The first half of the year for the three major operators ended: the number of 5G package users approached 500 million and the penetration rate exceeded 30%

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Yesterday, the three major operators released their operating reports for June, and the operating conditions of the three companies in the first half of the year were revealed.

Three companies reported: 5G users increased by 40 million in June

Yesterday, the three major operators successively released their operating data for June. Overall, all operating indicators have increased to a certain extent. Among them, China Mobile's monthly mobile user growth exceeded China Telecom for the first time this year, with an increase of 2.722 million. Compared with the previous few months, China Telecom's number of mobile users in June fell. Coincidentally, in June, China Telecom also performed mediocrely in the 5G user package user indicator, which was not only lower than the data in May, but also "crushed" by China Unicom for the first time.

Specifically, China Mobile's operating data for June 2021 showed that in that month, China Mobile's mobile customer base increased by 2.722 million, and the total number of users reached 945.506 million. In that month, China Mobile's 5G package customers increased by 28.745 million, reaching a total of 250.695 million. China Mobile's 4G customer base increased by 4.419 million, reaching a total of 798.848 million. In that month, China Mobile's wired broadband customer base increased by 2.602 million, reaching a total of 225.599 million.

On the same day, China Telecom announced its operating data for June 2021. In that month, China Telecom's mobile user base increased by 1.82 million, and the total number of mobile users reached 362.49 million. In that month, the net increase in 5G package users was 6.66 million, and the total number of 5G package users reached 131.15 million. In terms of wired broadband business, in that month, China Telecom's wired broadband user base increased by 1.06 million, and the total number of wired broadband users reached 164.21 million. In terms of fixed-line telephone business, China Telecom's fixed-line telephone user base decreased by 20,000 in that month, and the total number of fixed-line telephone users reached 107.14 million.

China Unicom also officially announced its operating data for June. The data showed that in terms of mobile business, China Unicom's mobile bill users increased by 729,000 in June, reaching a total of 310 million. Among them, the net increase of 5G package users in June was 7.236 million, reaching a total of 113.33 million. In terms of fixed-line business, China Unicom's fixed-line broadband users increased by 632,000 in June, reaching a total of 90.123 million; local telephone users decreased by 34,000 this month, reaching a total of 47.188 million.

Midterm exam ended perfectly, the second half of the year is arduous

"Anhui Province plans to build 25,000 new 5G base stations in 2021", "Fujian Province expects to invest 4.5 billion yuan in 5G projects this year to build 30,000 new 5G base stations", "Jiangxi Province: plans to open 21,000 new 5G base stations this year and strive to achieve "5G in every county"... If you often browse C114's website, you will see a lot of similar news - operators in the first half of the year are vigorously promoting the construction of 5G base stations. This is also an important factor in the rapid growth of operators' 5G package users in the first half of the year.

5G base stations are the foundation and the prerequisite for the opening of 5G networks. At present, we have built the world's largest 5G independent networking network, with a total of 961,000 5G base stations opened, and promoted the construction and sharing of more than 400,000 base stations. It is reported that on September 9, 2019, China Telecom and China Unicom signed a 5G co-construction and sharing cooperation agreement to jointly build a 5G access network across the country, carry out 5G full life cycle co-construction and sharing, and realize one physical network and two logical networks.

After more than a year of joint efforts, remarkable achievements have been made and considerable benefits have been achieved. As of the end of April, the two sides have opened a total of 400,000 5G shared base stations, and the operating income growth of both sides is higher than the industry average, forming a new situation of mutual benefit, win-win and scientific development. It is understood that according to the current scale of built base stations, the two sides have saved a total of about 80 billion yuan in investment, and saved nearly 8 billion yuan in electricity, tower rental and operation and maintenance costs each year.

This is also inseparable from the support of various companies in the 5G industry chain in addition to operators. It is reported that the proportion of 5G standard essential patents declared by Chinese companies continues to lead the world, and Huawei and ZTE's 5G equipment market share exceeds 50%. As we all know, mobile phones are the bridge connecting users and the network. From January to June this year, domestic 5G mobile phone shipments reached 128 million units, accounting for 73.4%.

Of course, blindly pursuing quantitative growth is not the ultimate goal. In the process of developing users, operators are also thinking about their value and significance. Huang Yuhong, deputy director of China Mobile Research Institute, recently pointed out in an exclusive interview with C114 that it is difficult to innovate the 5G business model. The charging scale of traditional communication services is relatively simple, but for the digitalization and intelligent applications brought by 5G, the solutions are more complex, the equipment cost needs to be further reduced, and the new business model is still in the process of running-in and exploration.

In the first half of the year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology drafted and compiled the "5G Application "Sailing" Action Plan (2021-2023)" and officially issued it in July (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan"). The "Plan" points out that by 2023, the 5G user penetration rate will reach 40%, that is, there will be 560 million "5G network customers", and the average annual increase of 5G network customers will be more than 140 million in three years. This has brought certain pressure to operators. It is also required that by 2023, there will be 18 5G base stations per 10,000 people. Based on the 1.4 billion population, about 2.52 million base stations will need to be built. According to the current 960,000 5G base stations, 1.56 million 5G base stations will be added in the next two and a half years.

At present, operators have achieved victory in the first half, but there is still a long way to go.