5G applications with over 100 million users have crossed the starting line

The development of 5G networks is in full swing. On August 17, according to data disclosed by Huawei's rotating chairman Guo Ping, the number of 5G users worldwide has exceeded 100 million. This development speed is actually expected. Since my country issued 5G licenses last year, the scale of users has continued to grow, and other countries are also working hard to build 5G networks. However, just as 4G made WeChat a success, today's 5G also urgently needs some "killer" applications like WeChat. In the words of industry insiders, "it requires the arrival of critical points in network scale, user scale, and terminal usage scale." Then, 100 million may be a turning point.

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The user scale continues to expand

"Currently, 92 operators around the world are working together to deploy 5G commercial networks, and the number of 5G users worldwide has exceeded 100 million." Guo Ping said that the global 5G deployment will come to an end, and the focus of the next stage will be on developing industry applications. Earlier, at the end of July this year, Guo Ping predicted that by the end of this year, the number of 5G base stations around the world will exceed 1.5 million.

Among them, China ranks first in the world in terms of the number of 5G base stations and users. According to data released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, as of the end of June 2020, the three major operators have built and opened more than 400,000 5G base stations across the country, and the number of 5G network terminals has reached 66 million.

In terms of users, the latest data released by the three major operators showed that as of June 2020, China Mobile's 5G package users reached 70.199 million, a monthly increase of 14.59 million; China Telecom's 5G package users reached 37.84 million, a monthly increase of 7.79 million; China Unicom stated that due to different statistical calibers, it will not be announced for the time being.

Beijing Business Daily reporter interviewed China Unicom about the number of 5G users, but as of press time, the other party has not responded. However, there are speculations that China Unicom's 5G package users may also be in the tens of millions.

In order to attract users to upgrade to 5G packages, the three major operators have tried their best. For example, in early June, when 5G commercialization was one year old, the prices of 5G packages of the three major operators all loosened. China Mobile's most basic 5G package fee of 128 yuan was reduced to 89 yuan/month, and China Unicom and China Telecom also had corresponding discounts. However, Beijing Business Daily reporters saw that the price of 5G packages has now returned to the original price.

In terms of base station construction, according to China Mobile's plan, the target for new 5G base stations this year has been raised from 250,000 to 300,000, and commercial services will be provided in all cities at the prefecture level and above across the country by the end of the year, and the SA core network (independent networking) will be promoted for commercial use within the year; China Unicom and China Telecom have worked closely together to promote the joint construction and sharing of 5G networks. In the first half of the year, the two parties added approximately 150,000 new jointly built and shared 5G base stations. As of now, China Unicom has a total of approximately 210,000 available 5G base stations, of which the company has built more than 100,000.

Clear direction of industry application

Although user development and base station construction are proceeding in an orderly manner, the research and development of 5G applications is still lagging behind. At present, the exploration direction of industry applications is clearer than that of personal applications.

Wang Zhiqin, deputy director of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, pointed out that among the three major application directions of 5G, smart life accounts for 57.4%, playing a significant role in epidemic prevention and control; in the field of industry applications, applications in smart medical care, news media, smart cities, Internet of Vehicles and industrial Internet account for 70%, which will become the pioneer application fields of 5G.

Telecom analyst Ma Jihua also said that the better 5G applications now are mainly reflected in remote medical control, online education, and short video live streaming.

In the live broadcast field, in May this year, the 2020 Mount Everest Elevation Measurement Mountaineering Team successfully reached the summit. The high-definition video footage of the mountaineering team's summit measurement was shared with the world in real time through the 5G network. The audience witnessed the climbers' summit and elevation measurement process from an unprecedented angle and method. This is also the first time that 5G network has been used for live broadcast in a harsh environment at an altitude of about 6,000 meters.

In the medical field, the application of 5G technology in telemedicine has developed intelligent medical scenarios such as remote consultation, remote ultrasound, and remote surgery. China Mobile recently launched the industry's first 5G intelligent edge cloud platform with a cloud-network integrated architecture, integrating 5G slicing and edge computing technology. It can meet the core capability requirements of the medical industry in terms of connection, computing, storage, middle platform, business, and security in one stop, and provide exclusive cloud-network integrated services that can be managed and controlled.

The Internet of Vehicles is also one of the important application scenarios of 5G. On July 3, the international standards organization 3GPP announced the freezing of the R16 standard of 5G (i.e. the finalization), marking the completion of the first evolution version of the 5G standard. 5G commercialization has entered the deep water zone, and the Internet of Vehicles is one of the key industry applications it supports.

Liu Qicheng, a communications expert, believes that many companies are now working on 5G industry applications, the most common of which are car networking, 4K and 8K video, and there are also some explorations in the field of industrial manufacturing. "It can only be said that it is still in the initial exploration stage, and 5G applications have not yet been fully implemented, because SA has not yet been officially commercialized. It is expected to start in the second half of this year."

Personal applications are still under exploration

Compared with industry applications, personal applications are currently almost in a blank period.

Beijing Business Daily reporters learned from some consumers who have purchased 5G packages and switched to 5G mobile phones that the smartphones that everyone relies on generally do not yet have any "killer" 5G applications. The user experience is nothing more than watching movies and playing games at a faster speed than before, but there are no applications that really require 5G.

The only clue is that in April this year, the three major operators jointly released the "5G Message White Paper", and may officially launch 5G messages in the second half of this year, which is when SA is officially commercialized. The "5G Message White Paper" shows that the traditional SMS services of operators can no longer meet the diverse needs of users due to their simple functions and limited experience. The 5G message service not only supports multimedia message interaction between individual users, but also enables industry customers to provide users with new digital interactive services based on rich media.

It is worth noting that on August 17, Shenzhen took the lead in achieving full coverage of 5G independent networking.

"my country's current 5G applications are actually at the same level as the rest of the world and are all in their infancy. We have not found applications that are very suitable for 5G, or that can only be supported by 5G networks. It seems that it will take time, network scale, user scale, and the arrival of a critical point in terminal usage scale." Ma Jihua said that based on historical experience, all good applications were "accidentally" discovered and grown in practice, and were not the result of "forcing growth" in laboratories or imagined by experts.

Dong Xin, general manager of China Mobile, also said that it is not easy to generate "killer" applications from "killer" functions. At present, the performance of 5G still faces three major difficulties: "substantial increase in construction and operation costs", "lack of scientific and technological innovation coordination capabilities", and "the lack of an industrial integration system". It requires cross-border cooperation and breakthroughs in innovation paradigms to fully unleash the innovation efficiency of the network.