China Mobile announces the results of a 5G order worth 38 billion yuan. Huawei is the big winner. Full-screen mobile phones depend on it.

Huawei is the biggest winner in 5G big orders

Recently, China Mobile announced the winning candidates for the centralized procurement of 5G 700MHz main equipment. 700MHz is the golden frequency band for 5G, and China Broadcasting Corporation, the fourth largest operator in China, owns this frequency band.

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Previously, China Mobile and China Broadcasting Corporation reached a 5G co-construction and sharing cooperation agreement. The two parties jointly invested in the construction of the 5G 700MHz network and shared ownership and use rights. On June 25 this year, China Broadcasting Corporation again commissioned China Mobile to conduct a bidding, and the scale of 5G 700MHz macro base station procurement reached 480,397 stations, with a value of 38 billion yuan.

In the end, Huawei became the biggest winner. In the three bid packages announced, Huawei was the first candidate for winning, accounting for about 60% of the share. Other winners included ZTE, Shanghai Nokia Bell, Datang Mobile, and Ericsson (China). In terms of the amount, Huawei was about 23 billion yuan, and ZTE was 11.9 billion yuan. Shanghai Nokia Bell, Datang Mobile, and Ericsson (China) were 1.35 billion, 1.08 billion, and 710 million respectively.

Why 700MHz is the golden frequency band for 5G

The 700MHz frequency band of 5G network is called the "golden frequency band". The frequency band number is n28. It has the advantages of wide signal coverage, strong penetration, small base station construction scale, and low networking cost. Compared with the previously "hotly hyped" n79 frequency band, 700MHz is easier to achieve wide coverage when deploying 5G. The high frequency of n79 is much worse in coverage, so large-scale construction has not been achieved so far.

n28 will be a must-have frequency band for 5G mobile phones in China in the future. If you want to have 5G signals wherever you go in the future, you can’t do without it. This frequency band has long-term strategic significance for 5G deployment.

Simply put, after the deployment and construction of 700MHz is completed in the future, some remote and secluded areas may also have full signal.

Previously, China Mobile released the "China Mobile 5G Mobile Phone Product White Paper (2021 Edition)", which required that terminals priced at 4,000 yuan and above must support 700MHz from March 1, 2021.

At the same time, China Unicom also mentioned and emphasized in its 2021 5G mobile terminal white paper that it recommends n28 to be included as a mandatory option.

Are some existing 5G mobile phones facing elimination?

Previously, when choosing a 5G mobile phone, you may only need to support China Mobile's n41, n79 and China Unicom's n78 frequency bands to get a similar 5G "full network access" experience. But in the future, a mobile phone that lacks support for the n28 frequency band may not be truly full network access.

Many users who change their phones this year may not have to worry. It is understood that many 5G mobile phones on the market, such as OPPO Find X3 Pro, vivo X60 Pro+, Xiaomi 11 Ultra, etc. equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 5G platform, can already support the n28 frequency band.

5G phone users who don't support n28 don't need to worry too much. It will take time for n28 to be commercialized and popularized. For 700MHz deployment alone, there are also financial and time challenges.

Some opinions predict that it will take at least one or two years for China Mobile and Radio and Television to build the 700MHz frequency network. In the short term, it will have little impact on the experience of existing 5G mobile phone users.

However, it is an inevitable direction for the development of domestic 5G mobile phones in the future. According to Liang Xiaotao, general manager of China Radio and Television, there are nearly 100 5G mobile phones that support the 700MHz frequency band.