Here is everything you want to know about 5G progress and next steps

The progress of 5G has always been a key topic of concern in the industry. At the "Press Conference on the Development of the Industrial Communications Industry in the First Half of 2020" held on July 23, Wen Ku, Director of the Information and Communications Development Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and spokesperson, summarized the development of 5G since the first year of licensing and put forward relevant suggestions for the next work.

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5G base stations exceed 400,000 and 5G users reach 66 million

Since the launch of 5G last year, operators have been continuously promoting the development of 5G and have achieved very good results.

In terms of network construction, recently, an average of more than 15,000 new base stations have been opened every week. By the end of June, the three companies have built and opened more than 400,000 5G base stations across the country.

In terms of terminals, Wen Ku said that according to the latest data, 197 5G terminals have obtained network access licenses, and the shipment volume of 5G mobile phones has reached 86.23 million units.

In terms of user development, Wen Ku said that many operators report the number of 5G packages, and I think we should report a more convincing number. "As of the end of June, there were 66 million terminals connected to the Internet for real 5G mobile phones, regardless of whether you use a package or not, and as people's mobile phones are upgraded, this number is still rising month by month."

Overall, 5G's potential in stabilizing investment, promoting consumption, assisting upgrades, and cultivating new drivers of economic development will become more apparent as these data continue to grow.

Create a fair market competition pattern to protect user rights

We have seen that although the number of 5G users is constantly increasing and decreasing, there are still a considerable number of users who are not very enthusiastic about upgrading to 5G.

In order to better promote the development of 5G, operators will have market competition with each other. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will not intervene in this regard. "We hope to create a fair and dynamic market competition pattern. In this competition pattern, operators can use appropriate methods as long as they are within the scope of our supervision and the scope of protecting the rights and interests of the people."

In this process, we also observed that some operating companies have some assessment indicators and promotion measures. Under this assessment pressure, subordinates will use some compulsory and abnormal means when promoting it, which the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology strongly disapproves of. However, from the overall mainstream, the development of 5G is still good.

In terms of protecting user rights, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has also issued a series of rules and regulations. For example, the "Telecom Service Specifications", "Notice on Standardizing Telecom Service Agreements", and "Notice on Further Strengthening the Consumption Reminders for Telecom Service Users" and other regulations are used to constrain telecom companies. For example: when opening a service for a user, it is necessary to remind the user that the service cannot be opened without the user's consent. "This is not only for 5G packages, but also for other services."

Wen Ku said that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology had specifically carried out rectification on these issues in recent years. We require that the regulations on consumer reminders must be strictly implemented during the service process to effectively protect the user's right to know.

In the next step, local communications administration bureaus will pay close attention to the situation in various provinces and regions, strengthen supervision and inspection, and especially investigate and punish in accordance with the law any behavior that infringes upon the legitimate rights and interests of users, such as upgrading user packages and bundling sales without their consent.

Five aspects to play the supporting role of 5G in high-quality economic development

Overall, China's current 5G development is still in the early stages of commercial use. To truly leverage 5G's supporting role in high-quality economic development, it is necessary to further strengthen policy guarantees, mobilize and stimulate the initiative of various market players, and promote the formation of a good 5G ecosystem for construction, development, and application.

In this regard, Wen Ku pointed out that there are five things that need to be done urgently:

First, we will promote both quality and efficiency in network construction. We will push basic telecommunications companies to increase their efforts and seize the construction period, aiming to support the independent networking (SA) model, accelerate the construction of a high-quality 5G network covering the whole country, with advanced technology and excellent quality, and continue to support China Telecom and China Unicom to build a very competitive 5G network with a large bandwidth of 200 megabits through joint construction and sharing.

"Ordinary people may not know much about the 200-megabit network, but it is a relatively advanced network in the world, and we are the first to try it. China Telecom and China Unicom jointly built it. We support further promoting the integration of advantageous resources of basic telecommunications enterprises, accelerating the construction of networks in major cities, and gradually extending 5G coverage to key counties, towns and even some rural areas with conditions."

Second, we should focus on fully releasing the vitality of the market. We should seize the development opportunities of 5G in online education, online medical care, remote office, etc., further enrich the application scenarios of 5G, and promote the entry of 5G terminals with rich categories and high cost performance into the market. At present, you may see many high-end mobile phones with a price of several thousand yuan in advertisements, but in fact, with the entry of a large number of mobile phones into the market, there are also low-end 5G mobile phones with a price of about one thousand yuan. Therefore, these mobile phones can better meet the differentiated life needs of the general public, thereby driving the rapid growth of information consumption.

The third is to achieve the same frequency resonance between 5G and other industries. We must fully mobilize the enthusiasm of all walks of life to apply 5G, promote two-way openness and cooperation between communications and related industries, study and sort out what kind of constraints there are in the promotion of 5G applications, what kind of requirements these constraints have on the network, further clarify the needs of these applications, clarify technical solutions, explore new business models, and effectively open up the application channels of 5G and other industries.

Fourth, give full play to the boosting role of local support policies. Fully release the policy dividends of local governments at all levels, encourage governments at all levels to formulate policies based on local conditions, make full use of the "toolbox" of 5G policies in terms of power supply, construction, application, and funding, and combine the industrial advantages of various regions and the needs of digital transformation to quickly transform 5G development into a key driving force to support high-quality economic development.

Fifth, we need to strengthen international cooperation and mutual assistance. We need to continue to increase international cooperation and carry out extensive and in-depth cooperation in 5G technology, industry, and applications. We need to continue to promote innovation in 5G applications, promote the formation of new growth points, and jointly respond to the downward pressure on economic growth brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.