Wu Hequan, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering: 5G technology is very immature and the operating costs are extremely high

According to domestic media reports, on October 15, during the 2020 China International Information and Communication Exhibition, Wu Hequan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, delivered a keynote speech entitled "One Year after 5G Commercialization, Industry Innovation Restart" at the main forum of the IMT-2020 (5G) Conference. He mentioned that 5G currently still has problems such as immature technology, extremely high operating costs, and difficulty in digesting costs.

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Wu Hequan said that the epidemic has boosted the demand for 5G, and the national new infrastructure strategy has accelerated the construction of 5G. On the first anniversary of 5G commercialization, while we see the achievements, we also need to face up to the existing problems, which are mainly: "The technology is very immature, the operating costs are extremely high, and it is difficult to digest the costs."

Regarding the maturity of 5G , he said that mobile communication technology is always being improved, basically every ten years, and the first few years of each generation are the process of technology maturation. Therefore, it is obvious that 5G technology is not mature enough when it is first commercially available.

Regarding the energy consumption of 5G , the energy consumption of each 5G base station is about 2 to 3 times that of 4G. It can be concluded that the total energy consumption of 5G base stations may be about 4 to 9 times that of 4G. But in fact, 5G does not necessarily have to achieve full coverage of 4G, and 5G deployment will use macro base stations + micro base stations.

Therefore, from the perspective of energy efficiency, although 5G has high energy consumption, it supports large capacity. According to calculations, the energy efficiency of 5G is 27 times that of 4G, so it is worthwhile from the perspective of energy efficiency.

Regarding the investment scale of 5G base stations , if the number of 5G base stations is considered to be 2.5 times that of 4G, and the price of base stations is considered to be 2 times that of 4G, then the total investment in 5G base stations is 5 times that of 4G.

But in fact, 5G is mainly aimed at industrial applications and does not need to achieve the same scale of coverage as 4G, so some investment can be saved.

my country's 4G construction has gone through 7 years of investment since 2013. Currently, 4G users account for 80% of all mobile users in the network. If 5G construction is to reach the user scale of 4G, the investment will take 8 years or even longer.

Regarding the return on investment period of 5G , the current ARPU value of 5G users in South Korea is 37% higher than that of 4G, indicating that 5G will exceed 4G in terms of revenue from consumer users.

The cost of 5G network is 4 to 5 times that of 4G, and the operating income will be more than 6 times that of 4G. It can be considered that the return on investment of 5G is equivalent to that of 4G.

On October 14, Ding Yun, executive director of Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. and president of the Carrier BG, also stated at the 2020 China International Information and Communication Exhibition that China has built the world's largest 5G network, but there is still a gap with foreign countries in user experience, coverage, and commercial closed loop.

He said that China's 5G user experience has three problems: "fake, dumb, and poor". Some users have the 5G LOGO on their mobile phones, but they are not connected to the 5G network, cannot make 5G calls, or the signal switches frequently.