China Telecom will commercialize 5G independent networking in more than 300 cities

On November 7, Li Zhengmao, general manager of China Telecom, announced that China Telecom was the first operator in the world to commercialize 5G SA networks on a large scale, supporting the three major application scenarios of eMBB, URLLC, and mMTC, and building core facilities for new infrastructure.

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SA (standalone networking) and NSA (non-standalone networking) are two 5G networking modes that are used globally. In comparison, 5G SA can effectively support all 5G application scenarios and provide rich, diverse, differentiated and personalized businesses and services. Therefore, this is also the evolution direction and target architecture of 5G networks; 5G NSA uses the 4G core network, and some performance does not meet the real requirements of 5G. The initial use of NSA networking can speed up the construction progress and reduce the difficulty of deployment. Later, it can be upgraded to SA networking based on the existing NSA. The two are not in opposition, but in a progressive relationship.

As early as February this year, China Telecom announced that it was the first in the industry to complete the system performance verification of 5G SA core network commercial equipment. At the same time, the 5G end-to-end system function verification and cross-vendor interoperability testing have also been basically completed, promoting the commercialization of 5G SA equipment in terms of functions, performance and multi-vendor networking, laying the foundation for the large-scale deployment of 5G SA.

It is reported that China Telecom will commercialize 5G SA in more than 300 cities. Currently, more than 30 mobile phones support 5G SA, and by the end of the year, more than 100 mobile phones and multiple 5G industry terminals will support it. According to the disclosed data, China Telecom has built more than 320,000 5G base stations across the country.

The commercial use of 5G SA networks has always been one of the focuses of competition among the three major operators. In addition to China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom are also promoting the construction and commercial use of 5G SA networks. Recently, at the "5G Application Innovation Summit Forum", Duan Xiaodong, deputy director of China Mobile Research Institute, pointed out that after more than a year of promotion, 5G has shown three major changes: first, from non-independent networking to independent networking, 5G is becoming more and more mature; second, from basic to expanded, 5G capabilities are becoming more and more perfect; third, from technological innovation to application innovation, 5G applications are becoming more and more abundant.

In terms of network construction, China Mobile has built the world's largest 5G premium network, covering 340 cities across the country. By the end of this year, China Mobile will exceed the 300,000-station 5G construction plan and build more than 350,000 5G base stations. As of now, China Mobile's 5G package users have exceeded 98 million. At the same time, China Mobile has introduced 5G independent networking, and a large number of base stations are gradually and orderly cutting to the SA mode, providing new architecture design, new technology foundation and new service capabilities. By the end of this year, China Mobile will fully build the world's largest independent networking 5G network.

Zhejiang Mobile is the first provincial operator of China Mobile with 5G SA commercial capabilities. In September, Zhejiang Mobile officially announced that it would take the lead in launching 5G SA large-scale applications. As early as 2019, Zhejiang Mobile launched the world's first self-controllable 5G SA cloud network, and took the lead in realizing 5G SA large-scale commercial use in Hangzhou, Ningbo, Wenzhou and Jiaxing.

In October, Ma Kui, general manager of China Mobile Sichuan Company, announced that Sichuan Mobile's 5G independent networking (SA) was officially put into commercial use; with the official launch of 5G SA networks in Jiujiang, Fuzhou and Pingxiang, Jiangxi Province, China Mobile Jiangxi Company has also achieved the goal of commercial use of 5G SA networks throughout the province.

In June this year, China Unicom Beijing Branch announced the launch of 5G SA public testing. According to Zhang Xin, general manager of China Telecom Group's 5G sharing and co-construction working group, China Telecom and China Unicom have built the world's largest co-construction and sharing 5G network, and the two sides will increase the construction task of 58,000 5G base stations by the end of the year.

Beijing Business Daily interviewed China Unicom about when it will achieve formal large-scale commercial use of 5G SA network, but the other party had not responded as of press time.

Statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology show that the number of 5G terminal connections in my country has exceeded 160 million. So far, 207 5G terminals have obtained network access licenses, including 180 5G mobile phones from 34 brands. Among the new mobile phones launched in the past two months, 5G mobile phones account for nearly 80%.