Halfway through 2021, China Broadcasting and Television 5G begins to accelerate

2021 is already halfway through, and China Radio and Television's 5G construction pace has finally accelerated.

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Launch of centralized procurement of 5G 700MHz wireless network equipment and antennas

Recently, China Radio and Television Corporation publicly announced that it has launched the centralized procurement bidding for 700MHz wireless network main equipment and multi-channel antenna products. Entrusted by China Radio and Television Corporation, the bidding work is conducted by China Mobile on behalf of China Radio and Television Corporation and China Mobile.

To this end, China Mobile has issued a centralized procurement bidding announcement for 5G 700M wireless network main equipment. The products purchased for this project are 5G 700MHz macro base stations, with a procurement scale of approximately 480,397 stations.

The project adopts mixed bidding and is divided into 3 bidding packages: Bid Package 1: There are 3 winning bidders, and the winning shares are 61.12% for the first place, 28.77% for the second place, and 10.11% for the third place; Bid Package 2: There are 3 winning bidders, and the winning shares are 58.89% for the first place, 33.53% for the second place, and 7.58% for the third place; Bid Package 3: There are 3 winning bidders, and the winning shares are 59.98% for the first place, 30.44% for the second place, and 9.58% for the third place; The project allows bidders to win a maximum of 3 bidding packages at the same time.

At the same time, a centralized procurement bidding announcement for multi-band (including 700M) antenna products was also released. This project is a centralized bidding project, and the purchased products are multi-band (including 700M) antenna products, with a total of three categories and 6 models: 4+4+4 antenna (700/900/1800MHz), divided into normal gain and high gain; 4+4+4+8 antenna (700/900/1800/FA), divided into long and short models; single 4 antenna (700MHz), divided into normal gain and high gain. The procurement scale is about 1.74 million, of which 1.14 million are 4448 antennas, and 600,000 are 444 and other models.

According to the plan of China Mobile and China Broadcasting Corporation to jointly build and share 5G networks, China Broadcasting Corporation and China Mobile will complete the deployment of 400,000 700MHz base stations in 2021; it is planned to open 480,000 sites in the first half of 2022 and fully support 5G broadcasting services; and achieve full network coverage within two years.

The equipment selection and technical testing have now been completed, and the construction of the China Radio and Television 5G 700MHz network is being promoted as planned. At the same time, the "build and operate at the same time" plan is being refined and improved, and the 192 number segment will be implemented nationwide for commercial use in an orderly manner (the 192 number segment is the exclusive 5G number segment for China Radio and Television).

Of course, terminals are also an important link. It is understood that there are now nearly 100 5G mobile phones that support the 700MHz frequency band, covering high, medium and low-end consumer groups. Previously, China Mobile also made it clear that it will promote the further implementation of 700MHz co-construction and sharing in 2021 and realize the commercial use of 700MH. The requirements are: from March 1, 2021, terminals with a price of 4,000 yuan and above must support 700MHz; from October 1, 2021, new terminals must support 700MHz.

700MHz frequency migration

Prior to this, China Radio and Television officially launched the bidding for the engineering general contracting (EPC) of the national terrestrial digital TV 700 MHz frequency migration project on June 21. It is reported that after the general contractor of the migration project is determined in this bidding, the existing transmitter system and antenna feeder system of radio and television transmission stations across the country will be transformed, involving a total of 6,026 stations, 12,350 channels, and a budget of 1.8 billion yuan. The total construction period of the project is about one year, and the specific plan will be scientifically arranged according to the progress of the radio and television 5G 700MHz network construction and the need for "construction and operation".

Since China Radio and Television holds the 700Mhz and 4.9GHz frequency bands for 5G development, but the relevant industrial chain of the 4.9GHz frequency band is not yet mature, it can only temporarily focus on the 700Mhz frequency band for 5G development. The 700MHz frequency band is also known as the "golden frequency band".

In 2020, China Radio and Television's 700MHz frequency band proposal was adopted by 3GPP and included in the 5G international standard, becoming the world's first 5G low-frequency band (Sub-1GHz) large-bandwidth 5G international standard.

5G broadcasting may make radio and television 5G "out of the circle"

At this time, China Unicom and China Telecom have jointly built and shared the world's first and largest 5G network. So far, the two sides have built and opened more than 400,000 5G base stations, saving more than 100 billion yuan in construction funds.

According to data from May, China Mobile's 5G package users have reached 221.95 million, China Telecom's 124.49 million, and China Unicom's 106.09 million. However, the 192 number of radio and television has not been commercially available.

Therefore, in order to gain a place in the 5G landscape, radio and television still need some characteristics, and 5G broadcasting business is the characteristic of China's radio and television. This is also the key to the differentiated development of 5G, and it is also a powerful tool to promote radio and television 5G to "go out of the circle".

According to the plan, China Radio and Television and China Mobile will jointly build and share 5G networks, with a plan to open 480,000 base stations in the first half of 2022 and fully support 5G broadcasting services. Zeng Qingjun, deputy general manager of China Radio and Television Network Co., Ltd., once said that among the more than 400,000 700MHz base stations built this year, 5G broadcasting functions will also be built simultaneously, and 5G broadcasting services will also be built simultaneously on 3,000 radio and television transmission towers of China Radio and Television.

As we all know, in the past, emergency broadcasts by radio and television were mostly presented on television and radio. Now with the support of 5G, it is different. It is understood that 5G NR broadcasting is based on 700MHz 5G base stations. Terminals can simultaneously receive 5G broadcast signals transmitted under the same wireless resources, and the number of users is not limited; it can adapt to various types of 5G standard universal terminals, and can deeply and continuously cover various scenarios on 5G universal terminals; because it also supports Free-to-Air and SIM-free modes (even 5G mobile phones without SIM cards can receive), it can achieve universal 5G terminal reception across operators.

At present, China Radio and Television has conducted many 5G NR broadcasting trials. For example, it has jointly completed the mobility test of 5G NR broadcasting services with Huawei in Beijing, laying a solid foundation for the commercialization of 5G NR broadcasting.

In addition, China Radio and Television is also developing and testing an APP with 5G broadcasting services, which covers a wealth of video resources, such as live channels, VR videos, 360-degree full-scene videos, interactive videos, etc. In particular, it supports watching live channel programs without traffic, which can bring users a better video experience.