Experts discuss: How will 5G accelerate after the epidemic?

It was supposed to be a time to get rid of the old and usher in the new, and to go home to celebrate the New Year. However, an epidemic broke the original tranquility. The people of the whole country fought with all their strength, and after nearly two months of efforts, the epidemic was under control to a certain extent. In this anti-epidemic process, we witnessed not only the dedication of medical staff, but also the important role played by the information and communication industry.

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At this critical period of 5G development, what impact will this epidemic have on China's 5G development? Recently, many guests said in the GSMA China Weekly Online Special that the epidemic has limited impact on 5G, and after the epidemic, 5G will play a more important role in promoting social economy.

5G has played an unprecedented role in the epidemic

In the fight against the epidemic, mobile communications and 5G technologies have provided unprecedented weapons for this battle.

Xu Ziyang, CEO of ZTE, pointed out that the characteristics of 5G network, such as ultra-large bandwidth, low latency, high reliability and massive connections, not only ensure the fast transmission of the network, but also give rise to the further development of 5G industry applications, accelerating the application and popularization of 5G. ZTE actively responded to the needs of the frontline and built a 5G network for Wuhan Leishenshan Hospital. The stable and fast network quality realized the scenario of voice monitoring of tens of thousands of people.

In Hubei, Chongqing, Sichuan, Guizhou, Jiangxi and other places, ZTE has worked with operators to carry out 5G remote consultation mobile diagnosis and treatment services; assisted China Mobile's online home cloud classroom business, quickly introduced a large number of high-quality educational resources; integrated intelligent video and AI thermal imaging to release intelligent cloud video operation prevention and control solutions; during the critical period of epidemic prevention inspections, intelligent sensing equipment was installed to achieve automatic and rapid perception detection, reducing manual input, infection, risk and cost. In the future, ZTE will further optimize and improve, and deploy all 5G industry innovative applications such as new media, telemedicine, and distance education to the anti-epidemic work, so that 5G can play a greater role in different industries and fields. ZTE also uses its own centralized office system of cloud services. Nearly 20,000 employees can achieve the same office efficiency as in the office through cloud desktops. He believes that this provides rich practical experience for subsequent digital transformation.

Chu Qing, CEO of Unisoc, said that the power of 5G in this epidemic not only supported emergency communications, but also saved medical resources on a large scale. Through the 5G network, massive amounts of information were transmitted in a timely manner, making a very outstanding contribution to maximizing the use of medical resources.

It is understandable that the epidemic has also affected people's normal life and study. Chu Qing said that only a more intelligent society can meet the future needs of mankind.

Zhou Yunjie, President of Haier Group, also pointed out that during the special period of the COVID-19 epidemic, information technology represented by 5G cloud computing and network security has become a strong support for epidemic prevention and resumption of work.

After the epidemic is over, 5G will develop rapidly

This epidemic is a huge challenge for the world and most companies. In the process of responding to the epidemic, most users have clearly realized the importance of informatization. For example, online office, especially for enterprise-level online office, requires more powerful network support. Tian Suning believes that this epidemic has greatly promoted 5G applications and 5G construction.

He said that during the SARS period, the epidemic promoted the development of B2C in China. This time, he believes that it will promote the development of B2B in China on a large scale. Cloud video, cloud office and various industry applications are becoming more and more important, and the network plays an irreplaceable role. Tian Suning believes that after the epidemic, the development of 5G in China will be accelerated, and the digitalization, cloudization and onlineization of the industry will be more favorable.

Chu Qing also pointed out that after the epidemic, the development of 5G will be much faster than expected.

How will 5G accelerate after the epidemic?

For society and industry, this epidemic has had a certain impact on all walks of life in China in the short term. Xu Ziyang said that in the ICT field, although there is a certain impact on offline production and assembly such as device, terminal, and equipment manufacturing in the short term, the communication infrastructure based on cloud computing has been improved, directly promoting the deployment of 5G scenarios for the digital transformation of various industries.

In the long run, this epidemic has stimulated the demand for remote collaborative distribution and contactless education, medical care, industrial manufacturing, logistics, etc. The government has also put forward higher requirements for the collection, transmission, processing, application and security protection of information in the whole society. Xu Ziyang pointed out that under this trend, it is necessary to increase continuous innovation in both 5G technology and applications, actively enable the digital transformation of all walks of life, and continuously promote product and service innovation and operational innovation of society and enterprises, so that 5G can truly become a new engine for social development.

Zhou Yunjie said that under the epidemic, we should not only focus on the present, but also think about how to find new opportunities for 5G development in this crisis and help 5G accelerate. For Haier, 5G technology has been introduced into production, manufacturing and application scenarios, and through the three major solutions of 5G+smart home, 5G+manufacturing and 5G+platform, it has realized the advanced layout of ecological brands. Haier will seize new development opportunities to strengthen the platform and create a new open ecology in the era of the Internet of Things.

Opportunities and challenges of 5G development in China

China has undoubtedly become one of the global leaders in 5G and is leading the world in industry development. Data shows that global mobile operators will invest about $1.1 trillion in mobile capital expenditures in the next five years, of which China will invest $180 billion in 5G. So in the long run, what are the opportunities and challenges of China's 5G development?

Tian Suning believes that the two most important opportunities for Chinese companies are very clear: first, to use 5G networks to create new industry applications, such as combining 5G with electricity, transportation, and media; second, to better realize cloud-network integration in the 5G era.

From the perspective of challenges, he feels that in the past, most Chinese companies were application-oriented, and many technologies were based on "borrowing". He frankly said that in the future, in order to build a prosperous 5G ecosystem, a powerful virtualized and highly reliable network, core technological innovation is the top priority. In the next 30 years, China should promote global informatization and digitalization with its own local innovation.