Taking multiple measures! Operators are preparing for 5G construction in 2021

As the year draws to a close, major operators have begun to prepare for next year's 5G construction.

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China Unicom and China Telecom have launched the procurement of wireless network main equipment for the 5G SA supplementary project, and China Mobile has launched the centralized procurement of Wi-Fi 6 smart home gateway products from 2020 to 2021. Judging from the recent launch of centralized procurement and past experience, operators will enter an intensive procurement period in the first quarter of next year and maintain high-intensity 5G construction. This year, due to the epidemic, the construction of base stations slowed down at the beginning of the year, and large-scale equipment procurement and base station construction began only after the resumption of work and production. Under such circumstances, 600,000 base stations were built in 2020, plus more than 10 last year. So far, there are 700,000 5G base stations built across the country.

5G construction is gradual and requires a few years of introduction. Next year will be an important time point for network deployment and construction. As the number of base stations increases, the cost of base station industrialization will decrease, and the number of 5G base station construction will rise in 2021. Even if the investment scale is the same as this year, the number of new base stations next year is expected to be more than this year, perhaps reaching 1 million new 5G base stations.

This year, my country's 5G has completed outdoor coverage in key areas of cities. Next year, on the basis of continuous outdoor 5G coverage, the focus of 5G construction will be on the construction of micro base stations and indoor distributed base stations. As 5G frequency increases, the penetration loss increases compared to 4G. Major equipment manufacturers must keep up with the development and application of indoor distribution systems. Only when people do not feel the switching of signals when walking indoors and outdoors can they have a better experience, thereby promoting their purchase of 5G terminals and other 5G consumption.

At the same time, the 700MHz industry chain will gradually mature. Currently, China Radio and Television has completed the construction of 6 core nodes and 10 backbone nodes. Next year, the "marriage" between China Radio and Television and China Mobile will be gradually implemented to promote the in-depth coverage of 5G networks.

Larger-scale 5G construction also brings more challenges, and site planning and coordination of high and low frequencies will be more difficult. This year, there are 330,000 5G base stations to be built and shared. Next year, large-scale construction of 5G indoor base stations will also usher in more severe site selection issues. The government and operators need to pay more attention to indoor site planning, strengthen site sharing, and maximize site utilization.

While deepening 5G coverage, 5G terminals and applications must also keep up. As Wen Ku, Director of the Information and Communications Development Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said, the construction of 5G is to lay the foundation for applications, and the ultimate goal of 5G is to make good use of 5G.

At present, the number of 5G package users in China has exceeded 200 million, of which China Mobile's 5G package users have exceeded 130 million, and China Telecom's 5G package users have reached 71.86 million (China Unicom's 5G package users have not yet been disclosed). In the future, the number of 5G package users will further increase. In order to better serve 5G package users, operators need to work hard on 5G applications to increase user stickiness.

5G package users are not equivalent to 5G terminal users. The number of 5G terminal connections has exceeded 200 million. Although there are many terminal categories now, the application of 5G can only be promoted if ordinary people can truly feel 5G and are willing to buy 5G mobile phones. In terms of industry terminals, dedicated terminals are gradually being promoted. In the future, more industries will have 5G terminals suitable for their own industries, but this requires the joint efforts of the industry chain to achieve.

To accelerate the migration of consumers to 5G, terminals alone are not enough, and 5G featured services are also indispensable. Recently, China Telecom and China Unicom restarted the construction and procurement of the 5G messaging platform (RCS), giving positive guidance to the industry chain and promoting the development of the 5G messaging industry.

In addition to 5G messaging, ultra-high-definition video will be the first personal application to be developed, but there are still some problems that require the joint efforts of the industry chain. 5G mobile phones can already support ultra-high-definition video playback, but video content has not yet caught up. The currently popular short videos are basically user-generated content. If the mobile phone supports ultra-high-definition video recording, then the content generated by users will already be ultra-high-definition video, and the characteristics of 5G video can be shown. In addition to personal entertainment, 5G VR/AR will also be explored in the fields of education, medical care, etc., to develop valuable applications that solve industry pain points and accelerate the implementation of 5G industry applications.

At present, the construction of 5G has been included in the 14th Five-Year Plan, and 5G construction will usher in faster development next year. The industrial chain needs to work together to allow 5G to enter and change the daily lifestyle of the people and the production and life of various industries, and truly empower "thousands of industries and millions of households."