Halfway through 2020: my country's 5G users exceed 100 million

Although we have not yet completely gotten rid of the COVID-19 pandemic, the pace of 5G in my country has clearly accelerated. Recently, the three major operators have all released their data for June. There is no doubt that everyone's attention has shifted to 5G. As of the end of June, the number of China Mobile's 5G package customers reached 70.199 million, and China Telecom reached 37.84 million. The number of 5G package users of China Mobile and China Telecom alone has exceeded 100 million.

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China Unicom has not yet announced the number of 5G users, but considering the size of China Telecom and China Unicom and the joint construction and sharing of 5G, the number of China Unicom's 5G package users should not be much different from that of China Telecom.

With the development of number portability, its impact has begun to become apparent. China Telecom has benefited relatively greatly from this user migration, while China Unicom has suffered the most user loss.

In addition, the fixed-line broadband market structure remains unchanged.

The number of 5G users exceeds 100 million

In terms of 5G package users, China Mobile had 6.736 million 5G package users in January 2020, and the number reached 70.199 million in June, with an average increase of more than 12 million every month.

China Telecom has also reached 37.84 million 5G package users. Although China Unicom has not announced the number of users, considering the size of China Telecom and China Unicom and the joint construction and sharing of 5G, the number of 5G package users of China Unicom should not be much different from that of China Telecom. Therefore, the three major operators easily broke through 100 million in the first half of the year.

During this year's Two Sessions, Miao Wei, Minister of Industry and Information Technology, said in an interview with the media: "At present, more than 10,000 5G base stations are added every week." Wu Hequan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, also stated at the "5G Commercial One-Year Online Summit": It is expected that by the end of this year, the number of 5G base stations in my country may reach 650,000, and the number of 5G package users may reach 200 million, achieving continuous 5G outdoor coverage in all prefecture-level cities across the country, key coverage in county towns and townships, and indoor coverage in key scenarios.

According to the "June 2020 Domestic Mobile Phone Market Operation Analysis Report" released by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology: From January to June, the total shipments of the domestic mobile phone market totaled 153 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 17.7%. While the overall shipments declined, the proportion of 5G mobile phones increased, with cumulative shipments of 63.597 million units, accounting for 41.5%.

At the same time, the price of 5G mobile phones continues to drop, which will accelerate the popularization of 5G. It is expected that the price of 5G mobile phones will further approach the 1,000 yuan mark in the second half of this year.

The impact of number portability is becoming more prominent

In the development of mobile users, the impact of number portability has begun to become apparent.

As of the end of June, the total number of China Mobile users was nearly 947 million, China Telecom 343 million, and China Unicom 309.528 million. Looking back at the first half of the year, among the three operators, China Mobile only saw an increase in mobile user numbers in March, April, and May, and all of the other three months saw a decrease; China Unicom even saw a short rebound in March, and then lost users in the other five months; only China Telecom saw a decrease in users in February due to the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, and the rest of the time saw a net increase.

This situation is mainly due to the impact of number portability. China Telecom has benefited greatly from this selective migration of users, while China Unicom has lost the most. The latest data shows that as of July 17, the number of number portability users has exceeded 10 million.

In addition, in terms of 4G users, China Mobile had 759.718 million 4G users, with a net increase of 2.184 million in the month; China Unicom had a net increase of 2.503 million 4G users in the month, reaching a total of 260.741 million; China Telecom no longer announced the number of 4G users.

Fixed-line broadband market remains unchanged

The fixed-line broadband market remains competitive, with China Mobile firmly in first place, China Telecom in second place, and China Unicom in third place with a widening gap. Data shows that by the end of June, the number of China Mobile users reached 197.116 million, China Telecom 154.14 million, and China Unicom 85.878 million.

Compared with the net increase in the first half of the year, the gap is even bigger: China Mobile had a net increase of 10.075 million users in the first half of the year, which is far ahead; China Telecom had a net increase of 1.01 million users; China Unicom had a net increase of 2.4 million users; and China Telecom lost 1.25 million fixed-line broadband users in the first two months.

At the same time, as the demographic dividend approaches its ceiling, the growth rate of fixed-line broadband users of the three major operators has slowed down.

In addition, in terms of fixed-line telephone business, the number of China Telecom's fixed-line telephone users decreased by 330,000 in June, with a total of 109.1 million users; China Unicom's local telephone users decreased by 625,000 in June, reaching a total of 52.119 million users.