5G messaging may be officially commercialized this year

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Although personal text messaging has been crushed by IM software, text messaging is not dead, and is even showing an "underwater boom". According to data released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology: In 2020, the national mobile text messaging business volume increased by 18.1% over the previous year, and the growth rate decreased by 14.1% over the previous year; the mobile text messaging business revenue increased by 2.4% over the previous year, and the growth rate difference of mobile text messaging business volume and revenue decreased from 33% in the previous year to 15.7%.

As an upgrade of SMS services, 5G messages provide users with personalized services in the form of text, voice, pictures, videos, tabs, etc. through Chatbot, realizing a one-stop service experience of searching, discovering, interacting, paying, etc. in the message window. Therefore, 5G messages have the functions of chat, group chat, mini-programs of OTT applications, as well as various service apps.

At present, 5G messaging has entered the live network deployment stage in China, operators are conducting trial commercial use, and terminal support coverage is also increasing. The industry chain, especially some industry application fields, are looking forward to it. It is expected that 5G messaging will be officially commercialized this year.

The deployment of 5G messaging has been fully launched

Operators have already started the deployment of 5G messaging in their live networks. As early as August 2020, China Mobile launched the centralized procurement of 5G messaging system equipment, using virtualization to centrally build 5G messaging centers and MaaP platform equipment, with a maximum bid limit of 405 million yuan. Prior to this, China Mobile had already launched the MaaP platform in 9 provinces and Chatbot in 15 provinces.

On January 29, 2021, China Telecom and China Unicom announced the winning candidates for the 2020 5G messaging platform (RCS) construction project joint centralized procurement project, and ZTE and Huawei became the winning candidates for this centralized procurement.

In November 2020, China Unicom's 5G message made its first successful call at Jiangsu Unicom's Wuxi East China Data Center. As one of the two major 5G message nodes planned by China Unicom, the Jiangsu node will undertake 5G message services in 12 provinces in the future. In December, Shanghai Unicom completed the deployment of the 5G message trial commercial platform and successfully connected to multiple leading industry applications.

During the Beijing Communications Exhibition in October 2020, China Mobile opened 5G messaging friendly customers for commercial use in 15 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities including Guangdong, Guangxi, Jiangsu and Zhejiang. China Mobile Internet Company has also specially developed a SMS applet to meet the experience needs of Apple iPhone users for 5G messaging based on the "SMS + authentication + H5 applet" approach.

The commercial carrier of 5G messages is the terminal. In terms of terminals, the customized terminals of the three major operators have basically achieved full coverage of the 5G message UP2.4 version. Terminal companies such as Huawei, ZTE, OPPO, vivo, Xiaomi, Samsung, Meizu, Hisense, and Lenovo are promoting the commercial use of 5G messages nationwide. Among them, the mainstream brands of Android smartphones have upgraded to the 5G message UP1.0 version, Huawei EMUI8.1 and above fully support, Xiaomi MIUI10.1 and above fully support, OPPO has a number of mobile phones in stock and launched the public version upgrade, and vivo has a number of mobile phones in stock and launched.

The industry chain is also looking forward to 5G messages, because operators will open up the business, billing and customer service capabilities of 5G messages, and gather a full range of customer content and services in the financial, catering, industrial, e-commerce, tourism, government affairs, transportation, media information, medical and other industries through standard network interface APIs for mobile terminals, platform operators and ecological service providers. At present, there is a demand for 5G messages in finance, insurance, securities, e-commerce, government affairs, communities, small and medium-sized enterprises, etc., because these all have problems such as high App installation costs and low customer usage frequency. Of course, application developers who need to rely on external Internet platforms also welcome 5G messages, because this allows them to fully control the customer service process, own all customer relationships, and benefit from customer traffic. 5G messages will greatly improve the communication efficiency and experience between industry enterprises and users.

On January 26, 2021, the unveiling ceremony of the first 5G message laboratory in the financial industry and the signing ceremony of the strategic cooperation between ZTE and UnionPay Data were held in Shanghai. The laboratory was jointly initiated by ZTE and UnionPay Data, members of the Financial Digital Development Alliance. The two parties will give full play to their respective advantages and conduct in-depth cooperation in the application scenarios, solution research, related standards, and project application of 5G messages, accelerate the development and commercialization of 5G message applications, and jointly create a 5G message industry application demonstration.

Challenges

Of course, 5G messaging has given the industry chain a "big pie", but it still faces some challenges on the road to large-scale commercial use.

First, users have already formed the habit of using existing OTT applications. For example, WeChat and Alipay have formed a huge user base. It is uncertain whether 5G messages can attract users in terms of social and service capabilities.

Secondly, the adaptation of terminals. As mentioned earlier, the adaptation of some mobile phone brands to 5G messages is still small in variety and quantity. Terminals are the carriers of all commercial use.

Third, the cross-platform entry problem. If you want to improve user stickiness and adapt to more scenarios, you need to support cross-terminal adaptation needs.

Fourth, regarding spam messages and user harassment. Since 5G messages do not require downloading, registration, logging in, or other pre-operations, and do not require binding a mobile phone number or receiving a verification code, they can be used right away. Take WeChat as an example: WeChat requires registration and adding friends to send messages to each other, but 5G messages do not require registration and adding friends, which provides an opportunity for spam messages.

Fifth, the main force of 5G messages is still enterprises, so the push of marketing information will not be unbalanced. This is also a challenge that needs to be considered and solved urgently on the road to commercialization of 5G messages.