5G is "close" to us, how far is it from you? The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology gives the answer

How long will it take for 5G to become popular?

Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has drafted and compiled the "5G Application "Sailing" Action Plan (2021-2023)", which mentions that by 2023, the penetration rate of 5G users in my country will exceed 40%, the number of users will exceed 560 million, and the proportion of 5G network access traffic will exceed 50%.

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What is the level of 40% user penetration? According to data released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, by the end of 2018, the number of 4G users in my country was 1.17 billion, with a penetration rate of 84%. Therefore, it will take a long time for 5G to be widely popularized, and 4G and 5G will coexist for a long time in the future.

This can also be seen from the number of 5G base stations. As of the end of March, the number of 5G base stations in my country was about 800,000. In comparison, by the end of 2019, my country had 5.44 million 4G base stations. Due to the higher frequency of 5G networks, more base stations are needed to achieve the current coverage of 4G networks.

5G is very "close" to us, but also very far away from us. Why do we say that? At present, 5G lacks "killer" applications. To put it bluntly, is there any practical use for consumers in the current 5G network?

5G lacks "killer" applications

Today, 5G has been commercially available for nearly two years, and Speedtest is still the largest application of 5G. The only perception of ordinary consumers about 5G networks is the improvement in speed. However, the current application scenarios on mobile phones can already be met by 4G networks, and 5G networks are not essential.

Of course, the "speed" of 5G network has certain advantages in video loading, file downloading, etc. However, this faces another problem: 5G charges are relatively high. Currently, the price of 5G packages generally starts at 100 yuan, which is not within the range that most consumers are willing to bear.

The "5G Application "Sailing" Action Plan (2021-2023)" issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology also mentioned that 5G technology will be further applied to specific scenarios. 5G+information consumption, 5G+integrated media, 5G+smart logistics, etc. are all future development directions.

With mobile communication technology iterating once every ten years, 5G, which has been commercially available for less than two years, is still in its early stages of development. What changes will 5G bring to our lives? There is still endless room for imagination! The popularization of new technologies requires pioneers, but we must also look at it rationally.

Take 5G mobile phones, an important part of 5G popularization, for example. Currently, there are almost no 4G mobile phones on the market above 2,000 yuan. But in fact, 4G mobile phones are enough for most consumers. Mobile phone manufacturers should return the right of choice to consumers!