The development of 5G should be based on facts and not just pursue book data

At present, the three major telecom operators have released their first half financial reports. The data looks good overall, and the number of 5G users is the most interesting. As of the end of June 2020, China Mobile's 5G package customers reached 70.2 million, with a penetration rate of 7.42%; China Telecom's 5G package users reached 37.84 million, with a penetration rate of 11.02%; China Unicom has not announced the specific number of 5G users.

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If we simply add up the number of 5G users of China Mobile and China Telecom, we can see that the number of 5G users has exceeded 100 million, and this is without counting China Unicom's 5G user data. However, the author noticed that according to data released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the current sales volume of 5G mobile phones in my country is 86.23 million units, of which 5G users have reached 66 million.

Although it is possible that some users have subscribed to both China Mobile and China Telecom 5G packages, from my personal experience, this is not the mainstream. So why is there such a huge gap between the number of 5G users counted by telecom operators and the data released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology?

It turns out that China Mobile and China Telecom count the number of users who have activated 5G tariff packages, while the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology counts the number of users who own 5G mobile phones and use 5G networks.

The author believes that the data conflict is mainly due to the excessive pursuit of 5G user data by operators. You should know that opening a 5G package does not necessarily mean that you can use the 5G network. Such data is "distorted" to a large extent. Not only can it not accurately reflect the real operating capabilities of telecom operators, but it may become a drag on their operations and even affect macro decisions to a certain extent.

The development of 5G is important and an inevitable trend, but operators should face reality and attract users with content and services instead of pursuing good data. It should be noted that 5G requires huge investment, and the operating costs are significantly higher than 4G. If there are not as many real 5G users as on the surface, and more and more 5G base stations are built, this will only lead to an irrational increase in costs. At present, some operators have chosen to put 5G base stations to sleep during non-peak hours in order to save electricity costs. China Mobile also admitted in its financial report that "the scale of 5G networks, data centers, etc. has expanded, and electricity costs have increased rapidly." These problems are worthy of vigilance.

To develop 5G with high quality, I believe that the three major operators should face up to reality and start from the following aspects.

First, take the initiative to squeeze out the water. The bloated 5G data cannot really serve the society and has no commercial value. It may even infringe on the user's right to know and the interests of consumers, and also have a negative impact on the country's macro-decision-making.

Second, focus on developing phenomenal applications. The key battle in the transition from 3G to 4G was the emergence of WeChat, a phenomenal application. The launch of the red envelope grabbing function greatly promoted the development of 4G. However, most people can hardly feel the substantial changes from 4G to 5G, because voice and other applications are already sufficient in 4G.

Third, the development of 5G should be based on the actual situation. If there is a need for large-scale development of 5G in various central cities, then 5G development should be accelerated in various central cities to promote the implementation of autonomous driving and smart cities. In other cities and rural areas, 5G is not a necessity and the construction speed can be slower.

Fourth, 5G construction requires the support and investment of local governments. The Shenzhen government recently announced that it has built more than 46,000 5G base stations, achieving full coverage of 5G infrastructure in the city. Obviously, the construction of these facilities cannot be separated from the support of local governments.

According to a report by International Data Corporation (IDC), in the second quarter of this year, the cumulative shipments of 5G mobile phones in the Chinese domestic market exceeded 67 million units in the past four quarters. This shows that users have gradually accepted 5G mobile phones, which is a good trend. However, only when they are driven by truly useful content and applications, users can really consume 5G. This is a reality that telecom operators must face up to.