In the first year of 5G commercial use, the number of users exceeded 240 million. Why are consumer-grade 5G applications still scarce?

Only one year after commercial use, my country's 5G users have grown from zero to 240 million, ranking first in the world. On December 25, the reporter learned from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology that, compared with last year's 0.2% market share of 5G mobile phones, in November this year, the domestic 5G mobile phone shipments accounted for nearly 70%, and the mainstream mobile phone market has completed the transition from 4G to 5G.

However, 5G is not all sunshine, and its bottlenecks have also emerged early. Due to factors such as supporting technology, equipment and ease of use, the lagging development of personal applications has made most people still not "hot" about 5G. When will more "visible, tangible and communicative" consumer-level personal applications emerge? This is not only the only way to accelerate the development of 5G new infrastructure, but also a must-answer question facing the industry.

R16 standard implementation helps 5G to be more practical

The commercial use of 5G has been completed for one year. The latest version of the 5G R16 standard was officially implemented this year, and the R17 standard has been approved and will be launched as early as next year. 5G is showing its vigorous vitality under the opportunities of the new infrastructure policy.

The new standard makes 5G signals "stronger", autonomous driving and telemedicine more responsive, and 5G mobile phone users are expected to get rid of battery anxiety... The evolution of 5G standards is also making it go from "usable" to "easy to use".

Chinese companies are focusing on demonstrating my country's technological strength. The three major operators have jointly led the formulation of more than 30 specific 5G technical standards, covering a series of key standard areas such as mobility enhancement and super uplink core standards, demonstrating my country's voice in the cutting-edge field of science and technology.

Zhang Zhonghao, director of Wireless Department 4 of China Unicom Network Research Institute, explained that the R15 standard can support a latency of around 10 milliseconds, and the R16 standard will reduce it to around 3 milliseconds, making systems such as autonomous driving and telemedicine more responsive.

In December this year, Beijing issued the first five unmanned road test notices, which was the first time that Beijing allowed test subjects to conduct unmanned autonomous driving tests on public roads. This was thanks to the implementation of the R16 standard.

"The R16 standard can also better support large-scale antennas and multi-antenna collaboration." Zhang Zhonghao said that in the future everyone's intuitive feeling is that the 5G signal has become "stronger."

Almost all mobile phone users have worried about the battery life. "R16 standard is making mobile phones more power-efficient. It can automatically put the phone into semi-sleep mode to save power during off-peak hours," said Xie Fang, senior researcher at China Mobile Research Institute.

Rooted in R&D, 5G users exceed 240 million

In addition to participating in the formulation of 5G standards, Chinese communications companies have already stood at the commanding heights of global high-tech competition and have become leaders and promoters of 5G development.

Only by taking root can we grow towards the sun. Strengthening technology research and development is the fundamental reason why Chinese companies are becoming increasingly powerful in the 5G field. Huawei's R&D investment in 2019 reached 131.7 billion yuan, and its number of 5G patents has exceeded 6,300.

In fact, Chinese telecom companies are occupying more technological heights. In the past three years, ZTE's annual R&D investment has exceeded 12 billion yuan, and the annual R&D expenditures of vivo, OPPO and Xiaomi are also higher than 10 billion yuan, which has become the support for ensuring the technological leadership of Chinese companies.

A relevant person in charge of ZTE told reporters that as of now, the number of its 5G patents has exceeded 6,500, ranking first in the world. In the chip field, which continues to be suppressed by foreign countries, ZTE now has more than 4,100 chip patents, and has achieved independent research and development and design of more than 100 chips, covering all key products of communication networks. At present, ZTE has obtained 55 5G commercial contracts worldwide and has launched 5G cooperation with more than 90 operators worldwide.

"As of November this year, vivo has applied for more than 2,000 5G patents," a vivo official told reporters.

Only by building a solid technical foundation can 5G develop rapidly. The relevant person in charge of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology also disclosed to reporters that my country has opened more than 700,000 5G base stations so far, and 144 million 5G mobile phones have been shipped so far this year, accounting for 51.4% of the total shipments, becoming the absolute mainstream.

"As of December 20 this year, the total number of 5G users in my country has reached about 240 million," the person in charge of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology also said.

The "White Paper on China's 5G Development and Economic and Social Impact" released by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology shows that 5G will directly drive the total economic output of 810.9 billion yuan this year and indirectly drive the total output of 2.1 trillion yuan.

5G consumer applications are still scarce

Not all 5G brings sunshine. Its bottlenecks have also emerged early on. Some applications have a narrow audience, and applications such as the Internet of Things can be realized in a 4G network environment. The situation of long waits for popular applications is becoming more prominent, showing the lagging development of 5G personal applications.

Unless you are seriously ill, ordinary people obviously have no chance of remote surgery. As for VR cinema, AR games, and 8K video, the penetration rate of their equipment is still very low. And the fields of 5G smart parking, autonomous driving, and unmanned delivery are still in the technical exploration stage. It is really hard to think of any application that is unique to 5G, which is the general feeling of many people.

"An advanced laser radar costs more than 100,000 yuan, which is almost equal to the price of the car. For 5G self-driving cars to be widely implemented, breakthroughs in related technologies must be made first," Yang Diange, a professor at the School of Automotive Engineering at Tsinghua University, told reporters.

In addition to faster download speeds, 5G and 4G are also comparable in daily usage experience. Obviously, due to constraints such as supporting technology and equipment, 5G is still "popular but not popular" to a certain extent.

According to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, there are still more than 1.2 billion 4G users in China. Faced with 5G package prices starting from hundreds of yuan, many people still have no reason to choose expensive ones and not use enough.

In addition to overcoming technical difficulties, Qin Fei, director of the vivo Communications Research Institute, also said that 5G will make rich media a trend due to the increase in speed and traffic, and 5G personal applications must also focus on key points such as being fun and easy to use.

It is currently generally predicted by all walks of life that the 5G message jointly created by the three major operators, as the first rich media application for individuals in the 5G era, is expected to become a big hit application after its debut.

Obviously, only when more 5G personal applications that are "visible, tangible, and communicative" emerge, allowing everyone to truly feel the "rhythm" of 5G, can the 5G upgrade be accelerated.