Innovation is the key to 5G's "three good"

Wen Ku, director of the Information and Communications Development Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, recently stated that it is necessary to "further promote 5G to achieve a benign ecosystem of good construction, good application and good development", and clearly pointed out that "I hope that local governments will have a comprehensive and reasonable expectation for the development of 5G in the next step. They should not only focus on the goal of network construction, but also work together more on 5G applications."

In 2021, if the 5G industry is to achieve high-quality development, I believe the most important thing is to innovate in operations, models and policies.

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First, the 5G industry has entered a new stage of innovative operation. Looking back at the history of the mobile communications industry, infrastructure and industrial applications have promoted each other in an asynchronous mode. That is, infrastructure is built first, forming a high ground in local areas (such as key cities), and then realizing the development of industrial applications. On the one hand, it obtains operating income to provide guarantees for operation, maintenance and expansion; on the other hand, it forms an application benchmark for replication and promotion.

The same is true for 5G. In the future, it will enter an innovative operation period of co-development of industrial applications and infrastructure. First, in terms of feasibility, since the issuance of commercial licenses in June 2019, China has completed the construction of more than 700,000 5G base stations, achieving full coverage of prefecture-level cities and above, reaching a quarter of the final construction quantity, and has begun to move from wide coverage to deep coverage in first-tier cities. On this basis, comprehensive operation of 5G can be carried out. In the 2C field, users' 5Gization will be further realized, and the promotion of special applications matching 5G, such as cloud terminals, will be stimulated; in the 2B field, based on the successful pilot of "5G+" achieved in the early stage, it will be promoted to become a product or solution and popularized; in addition, for the 2B field, the focus will be on strengthening the construction of specialized infrastructure such as 5G private networks, so as to provide better empowerment for the industry.

Second, in terms of necessity, in the context of the global epidemic and anti-globalization, changing business models and achieving high-quality development are the requirements of the current era. Many areas of social economy need new infrastructure to empower them. Therefore, the 5G industry needs to enter an innovative business period, and through the development of applications, it will make room for investment in the social and economic fields and enable high-quality economic development.

Secondly, the 5G industry has developed a new "internal circulation" model based on self-reliance. Learning from foreign experience, introducing foreign technologies, products and business models, and gradually localizing them are important experiences in my country's desktop Internet and 2G/3G/4G eras. However, in the 5G era, "self-reliance" will become the core model.

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China's 5G industry was launched simultaneously with the rest of the world, and 70% of the world's 5G base stations are in China. Other countries in the world no longer have any experience for China to learn from. China's 5G industry must take the path of independent innovation and development.

Affected by factors such as deglobalization, my country faces foreign blockades in areas such as 5G core technologies. Therefore, it needs to rely on independent innovation to break through potential shackles and establish a complete basic industrial chain.

Based on the current domestic and international situation, the "internal circulation main body" has become the overall positioning of economic development in a certain period in the future. Therefore, my country's 5G industry needs to embark on a development trajectory of "self-centered".

Analyzing the current status of the industry, my country has already explored the experience of independent development, including toC content and applications, toB products and solutions, etc., which has laid a good foundation for the autonomy of 5G.

Finally, the new 5G industry development policy will focus on industrial innovation and management. Previously, in the 5G industry policies of various regions, network construction, industrial application, technology development, and industrial chain construction were the four themes; but in terms of specific implementation, network construction was regarded as the focus, including the proposal of quantitative targets, and detailed promotion documents in terms of site coordination, energy security, and station construction subsidies.

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Under the requirement of "not only focusing on the goal of network construction, but also working more on 5G applications", it is expected that in addition to emphasizing network construction, future 5G industrial policies will focus on strengthening the following aspects. First, at the level of 5G infrastructure , grasp the judgment that "80% is used for the Internet of Things" and promote it at the level of dedicated facilities that are more closely integrated with the industry, including industry-specific networks, cloud-network integration, edge computing, information security and other aspects.

Second, at the 5G application level , we should change from the previous emphasis on promoting pilot development to the emphasis on promoting commercial use, and use government incentives and other support, such as tax refunds, for commercial practices that can generate actual value, or subsidies for users during consumption, etc. At the same time, the government's internal task indicators will also be included.

Third, in terms of 5G industry development . Under the requirements of the "internal circulation" and the "14th Five-Year Plan", with the goal of building an industrial chain with independent capabilities, it is expected that greater support will be given to technology research and development and the production of "bottleneck" links.