Two years after the license was issued, what progress has been made in my country’s 5G development?

Since the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology officially issued 5G licenses on June 6, 2019, my country's 5G commercial use has officially reached its 2nd anniversary as of June 6, 2021. During this period, my country's 5G development has gone all out and accelerated day by day. Even the severe international situation and the sudden epidemic did not stop the pace of progress. So based on such development, what kind of results has my country's 5G achieved in the past two years? Let's take a look together.

Network construction is unique in the world. The commercial development of 5G is inseparable from the 5G network. In this regard, my country has made great achievements. According to the latest data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, my country has built more than 819,000 5G base stations, accounting for about 70% of the global proportion, covering all cities above the prefecture level in the country. In 2021, it is planned to build 600,000 new 5G base stations, accelerate the scale development of independent networking, and promote 4G/5G collaboration.

Terminal connections are the best. The commercial development of 5G cannot be separated from the support of terminal devices. As an important tool for connecting networks and applications, it plays a key role in promoting the commercialization of 5G. According to statistics, the number of 5G terminal connections in my country has reached 280 million, accounting for more than 80% of the world; the number of 5G package users has exceeded 350 million, the price of unit traffic has continued to decline, and 5G terminal connections have achieved impressive results.

Application exploration has begun to take shape. The development of networks and terminals is ultimately for applications. In the past two years, due to the immaturity of the prerequisites, my country's applications were not ideal, but now with the continuous improvement of networks and terminals, my country's 5G applications have also achieved initial exploration results. It is reported that the three major operators are currently building a 5G application ecosystem based on 5G messages, and in terms of industry digitalization, the integration of 5G with autonomous driving, smart factories, education, and medical care is also gradually accelerating.

Standard patents have achieved fruitful results. The development of 5G commercialization requires the construction of standards. In the past two years, my country has been committed to forming a 5G full-capability standard system and has formulated a three-step strategy for this purpose. At present, after the release of the first 5G standard (R15) in 2018 and R16 in 2020, my country has entered the third stage. It is expected that my country will release R17 again in 2022. In addition, in terms of corporate standard patents, my country also accounts for 38% of the world, and its advantages continue to emerge.

Of course, although my country has achieved many good results in the commercial use of 5G in the past two years, it has also exposed many problems, including network coverage, cost reduction and efficiency improvement, terminal prices, package fees, application innovation, industry talents, etc. Based on this, although my country has taken the "first step of the Long March", it still needs to go all out to overcome difficulties in the future. Only by solving various problems can we support the industry to grow and mature.

So, what are the specific difficulties to be solved? First of all, in terms of network coverage, some remote towns and villages in my country are still not covered, and urban coverage is mainly concentrated in the central area, and coverage has not yet been comprehensive. Many users who have opened 5G packages said that the 5G signal problem is the biggest flaw in use. Therefore, in the future, my country needs to increase network coverage while ensuring the balance and comprehensiveness of 5G coverage.

Secondly, in terms of cost reduction and efficiency improvement, the current number of 5G base stations and deployment costs are several times that of 4G, which is a major challenge for operators' investment. At the same time, the insufficient base station construction caused by high costs is also prone to high energy consumption. Due to the higher deployment frequency band and greater base station density, 5G's energy consumption is several times that of 4G. In this context, how to reduce costs and increase efficiency in the future is also a problem that the industry needs to face and solve.

The third is application innovation. Killer applications have not yet appeared. Application innovation and business model innovation are the key to whether 5G can achieve great development. However, at present, on the consumer side, 5G has only made consumers' mobile phone applications faster in terms of network speed and AR/VR new, but there are only a few disruptive innovative applications. At the same time, on the industry side, 5G is not yet mature in the fields of autonomous driving, Internet of Vehicles, smart factories, etc., and future integration and innovation need to be accelerated.

In addition, the high cost of packages, the shortage of 5G professionals, and the exposure of 5G application security all pose challenges to the current development of 5G in my country. In the past two years, my country's 5G has only just started, and it will take more time, manpower, and financial resources to further deploy and improve it in the future. We look forward to hearing more good news about the commercial development of 5G in my country in the next few years, and that my country's 5G can truly go deep and far.