5G infrastructure scale leads the world, accelerating the implementation of 5G applications is the key to future development

After more than a year of commercial use, China has built the world's largest 5G network. "my country has built a total of 718,000 5G base stations and promoted the joint construction and sharing of 330,000 5G base stations," said Liu Liehong, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, at the 2021 China Academy of Information and Communications Technology ICT+ In-depth Observation Report Conference held recently. Advanced network construction has provided a solid foundation for the development of 5G applications and is having a huge impact on the economy and society. The China Academy of Information and Communications Technology predicts that in 2020, 5G will directly drive a total economic output of 810.9 billion yuan and directly drive an economic added value of 189.7 billion yuan.

Looking ahead, CICC analysis pointed out that the three major operators will add 800,000 to 1 million 5G base stations next year, continue to accelerate deployment in key areas, and increase low-frequency band 5G coverage in remote areas.

Such a fast 5G construction speed is gratifying, but it cannot be ignored that my country's 5G development is still in its early stages. CAICT predicts that in the next 2 to 3 years, my country's 5G network construction will continue to advance and gradually achieve wide-area coverage. Consumer-level innovative applications with 5G characteristics may achieve scale growth in 2022-2023, while industry applications will still be in the introduction stage and will be gradually put into commercial use in batches. The technical support capabilities of industry applications will be significantly improved, and more new products will usher in development opportunities.

5G network helps To C market prosper

The impact of the epidemic and the complex trade environment have caused the smartphone industry to go through a difficult time. Since 2020, the global smartphone market has continued to be sluggish. According to statistics from market research firm Gartner, in the third quarter of 2020, the global sales of smartphones to end users totaled 366 million units, a decrease of 5.7% compared with the third quarter of 2019; the global sales of mobile phones to end users totaled 401 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 8.7%.

Under such harsh environment, almost all mobile phone manufacturers hope that the dividends brought by the 5G mobile phone replacement wave can stimulate market sales to get out of the industry low. They have released their own 5G new phones one after another, and the status of 5G mobile phones in the domestic mobile phone market has officially been promoted from the previous "supporting role" to the "protagonist".

According to the November domestic mobile phone market operation analysis report released by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, in November this year, the domestic market shipments of 5G mobile phones reached 20.136 million units, accounting for 68.1% of the mobile phone shipments in the same period. At the same time, from January to November this year, the total shipments of the domestic mobile phone market totaled 281 million units, of which 5G mobile phones accounted for 51.4%, with shipments of 144 million units.

Domestic 5G mobile phone shipments and share Image source: Screenshot of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology report

As the end of the year approaches, the 5G war among major mobile phone manufacturers is becoming more intense. OPPO recently released the first 5G portrait video phone Reno5 series; vivo announced a partnership with Zeiss to improve the imaging function of mobile phones, and the upcoming vivo X60 series will be the first result of the cooperation between vivo and Zeiss; realme, which was established only two years ago, has launched a number of cost-effective 1,000 yuan 5G mobile phones in order to attract more users.

However, the popularization of terminals cannot rely solely on mobile phone manufacturers to play a solo show, but the key lies in the promotion of operators. Recently, China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom have successively released their main operating data for November. Specifically: China Mobile's total number of customers in November was 943 million, among which 5G package customers maintained rapid growth, with a net increase of 18.589 million 5G package customers that month, reaching a total of 147 million; China Telecom's total number of mobile users was 351 million, of which 5G package users had a net increase of 7.62 million, totaling 79.48 million; and China Unicom's cumulative users reached 307 million (the number of 5G package users has not been announced).

There is no doubt that my country's 5G construction has entered a stage of rapid development since the beginning of this year. So far, the three major operators have completed their 2020 5G base station construction plans ahead of schedule. At the same time, the industry also predicts that by the end of the year, there will be 800,000 to 900,000 5G base stations.

Accelerating the implementation of 5G applications is the key to development

If To C is the starting point and foundation of 5G development, then To B is the value carrier. This is especially true during the epidemic, when 5G has played an important role in telemedicine, public monitoring, smart education, remote office, inspection logistics and other fields.

For example, 5G remote consultation has been put into use in dozens of hospitals, achieving all-round barrier-free mobile consultation; 5G thermal imaging monitoring has been popularized in transportation hubs in many provinces; 5G network has helped the smooth communication of information in Huoshenshan and Leishenshan hospitals, and achieved real-time live broadcast. In addition, 5G online education and online collaborative office have also been widely used. As of May 11, the National Primary and Secondary School Network Cloud Platform has been viewed 2.073 billion times and visited 1.711 billion times.

However, in the view of equipment supplier Huawei, the development of 5G cannot be done "alone". It requires the coordination of technology and ecology, as well as innovative practices with industry solution providers, upstream and downstream partners, and customers to "create new value together."

Lu Yong, senior vice president of Huawei and president of China, has found in practice that whether it is remote control, image recognition, or unmanned aerial vehicle applications, it is impossible to rely solely on 5G connection capabilities. 5G can only produce a fusion effect and realize the value of 5G when it is coordinated with other capabilities such as smart terminals, industry terminals, cloud computing, AI, and combined with industry information systems.

"In the mining areas of Shandong and Shanxi, remote control based on 5G has enabled many workers to no longer have to go down the mine to perform underground operations hundreds of meters deep. In the future, jobs involving 'three highs' (high risk, high repetition, and high precision) will be increasingly done by machines as the information infrastructure improves and innovates," Lu Yong said in an interview with the media, including reporters.

In terms of the implementation of 5G innovative applications, another equipment manufacturer, ZTE, has achieved "5G manufacturing 5G" in the Nanjing Binjiang Smart Factory, and the Tianjin Port Smart Port has achieved remote control of quay cranes with 5G. It is understood that ZTE has currently explored 5G industry solutions and jointly deployed 5G applications with more than 500 partners in 15 industry fields such as industry, education, medical care, media, and transportation.

It is worth noting that the implementation of 5G applications will not happen overnight, but will be done in stages. In the view of Wu Hequan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, the development of related content such as ultra-high definition and VR needs to be further accelerated by 2021. At the same time, 5G+Industrial Internet is still in its infancy and needs to be integrated and applied faster.

In order to promote the accelerated development of related applications, on December 7, the State Administration of Radio and Television issued the "Radio and Television Technology Iteration Implementation Plan (2020-2022)", proposing to improve the 4K/8K ultra-high-definition video technology standard system, promote the implementation of 5G high-tech video, and launch new high-tech video products and applications.

What is even more exciting is that under the wave of 5G, the industrial Internet will also usher in broad development opportunities. Relevant data show that in the next three years, China's industrial Internet will grow steadily at an average annual compound growth rate of 14.4%. At present, my country's 5G+ industrial Internet has taken the lead in the development of aviation, machinery, steel, mining, ports, medical and other industries, and its application scope continues to extend to core links such as production and manufacturing. According to Lu Chuncong, deputy director of the Information and Communications Administration of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, my country's 5G+ industrial Internet investment has exceeded 3.4 billion yuan, and the total number of 5G base stations applied to the industrial Internet has exceeded 32,000. In the future, the industrial Internet will become the main battlefield for 5G applications.

However, it cannot be ignored that my country's 5G+Industrial Internet is still in its initial exploratory stage, facing problems such as weak digital foundation, insufficient industrial support capabilities, and business models to be explored. It needs equipment vendors such as Huawei and ZTE and powerful Internet companies such as Alibaba and Tencent, as well as industrial enterprises such as Foxconn and Sany Heavy Industry as the main force to promote 5G+Industrial Internet, deepen cooperation and actively explore.

With the construction of 5G networks and the comprehensive acceleration of the implementation of 5G applications, it can be foreseen that my country's 5G will gradually enter a healthy development mode in the future.