China Unicom successfully returns to the forefront of 5G user development

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After much anticipation, China Unicom finally officially announced the scale of its 5G package users. Although the total number cannot be compared with that of China Mobile, China Unicom has undoubtedly returned to the top of the 5G camp.

1. Covering your hands tightly was once the norm for China Unicom

In early November 2019, the three major operators simultaneously put 5G packages on sale. Since then, China Mobile and China Telecom have been competing in the development of 5G users, competing to release 5G user development data. China Unicom seems to be an outsider, and has remained unmoved despite many calls to release data.

Although it is not competing with China Mobile and China Telecom for the media spotlight, China Unicom has not relaxed any efforts in developing 5G users. Whether it is selling packages at a 30% discount or launching 5G data packages, China Unicom maintains synchronous promotion operations with its competitors.

As for why China Unicom has been slow to release data on the development of 5G package users, China Unicom's top management has already publicly explained the reason. Between 5G package users and real 5G users, there is also the hardware barrier of 5G terminals, so the pure 5G package user data is not very meaningful.

As of the end of December 2020, the number of 5G package users in my country has exceeded 300 million, but there are only about 170 million 5G terminals online. The gap between 300 million and 170 million shows that there are only about 170 million real 5G users in my country, and also shows that a large number of 4G users have already used 5G data packages in advance.

2. The penetration rate of 5G packages has exceeded that of China Mobile

Based on the 5G package user data and the total number of mobile phone users released by China Unicom, we can conclude that its 5G package user penetration rate has reached 23%. Although it is slightly lower than that of China Telecom, such development results are already a great achievement for China Unicom itself.

Although China Unicom has suffered a serious loss of mobile phone users, which has to some extent indirectly increased the penetration rate of its 5G package users, but compared with the importance of consolidating the basic base, eliminating any more water users or fake users will be beneficial to the long-term development of China Unicom.

After China Unicom announces the 5G user package penetration rate, it will undoubtedly put considerable pressure on China Mobile. After all, as the industry leader and everyone's academic master, China Mobile will inevitably further increase its efforts in the development of 5G package users, and at least will not allow itself to be forced to become the third in this indicator.

In fact, in the early stage of 5G user development, those who really have the willingness and financial resources to try out 5G are basically mid- to high-end users. As for how many mid- to high-end users each of the three operators has, this can be roughly estimated based on the current 5G package user penetration rate.

Whether more ordinary users can be developed into 5G package users in advance in the future is the key to truly reflect the operator's operating ability. After all, it is relatively easier to get rich people to pay more than ordinary people to pay more. The 5G package user penetration rate of the three major operators in 2021 will be more worthy of everyone's attention.

3. The user share of 5G packages has increased significantly

China Unicom has the smallest number of mobile phone users, and lost more than 12 million users in 2020. Although we are not sure whether this is China Unicom's active squeezing, China Unicom's 5G package user market share has increased significantly while its mobile phone user share has continued to decline.

In terms of absolute market share, although China still has the smallest share, China Unicom has successfully reversed its mobile phone user market share and its downward trend. It should be said that both China Unicom and China Telecom have achieved development achievements that surpass their own in expanding 5G package users.

Regardless of whether China Mobile's top management is aware of the huge pressure of the current 5G package user development competition, at least the above data is definitely worth pondering by China Mobile people. Have the huge basic user advantage and the advantage of the largest 5G base station been transformed into an advantage in the development of 5G package users?

Although many analysts and even some experts are not optimistic about 5G or hold a conservative attitude towards its development, judging from the implementation of the new infrastructure strategy and the official attitude, 2021 will undoubtedly be a year of great development for 5G. In the future, it is worth looking forward to whether China Unicom can maintain its current advantages and whether China Mobile can catch up.

Although the application scenarios of 5G are still unclear, and the attitude of society towards 5G is further divided, the operators should not relax their efforts in development, whether it is China Unicom and China Telecom, which are already leading in various market share indicators, or China Mobile, which is already the leader in terms of total scale. Of course, solving the many difficulties facing 5G requires the concerted efforts of operators and the supervision of more potential beneficiaries to enter the market in advance. Only with the participation of the whole society can my country's 5G global leadership be truly realized in advance.