Tell you the real strength of the four major communication operators' 5G

Recently, our country has determined the 2020 "new infrastructure" strategic plan, in which 5G is placed in one of the most important positions and is considered by industry analysts to be one of the "eight immortals" among this year's key projects.

With the great benefits in macroeconomic policy, the 5G construction of the four major telecom operators has become one of the focuses. As of now, let's take a look at their respective progress and future plans.

China Mobile

Since the official issuance of 5G licenses last year, China Mobile has been running ahead (5G commercial licenses were issued on June 6, and China Mobile released the first phase of 5G centralized procurement announcement on June 10). By the end of 2019, a total of 50,000 5G base stations had been built. As of January 7 this year, China Mobile announced that the number of 5G package users was 3.02 million, 3.8 million 5G mobile phones were activated in the network, and the cumulative number of users experiencing 5G special services exceeded 100 million. By the end of January, the data reached 6.736 million 5G package customers, directly doubling the number.

In 2020, China Mobile's second phase of 5G procurement has begun. This year, it plans to build 250,000 5G base stations, with a 5G user development target of 100 million households, and strive to achieve SA commercial use in the fourth quarter.

At present, China Mobile has more than 80,000 5G base stations, and the goal of 300,000 base stations by the end of the year remains unchanged. However, given its progress, it is likely to easily surpass this goal. In addition, China Mobile's 5G terminals use the "three no strategies", that is, no card change, no number change, no registration, and you can become a real 5G user by simply changing your 5G phone to log in to the 5G network.

China Telecom

Since China Telecom and China Unicom adopt a co-construction and sharing strategy for 5G, the scale and construction progress of the two companies' 5G will basically be consistent. However, co-construction and sharing involve cooperation issues, and communication difficulties and buck-passing will inevitably occur during the network construction process. To this end, the two parties established a "5G co-construction and sharing working group" at the group level, each sending 20 people and setting up a half-year rotation system, trying to use institutional methods to solve the problem of mutual distrust or lack of trust. It can be said that both parties have given sufficient preparation and confidence for this 5G construction.

Specifically, China Telecom built 40,000 5G base stations in 2019, with an investment of about 9 billion yuan. Due to China Telecom's advantages in network quality, its 5G user growth rate is also very fast. According to data previously released by China Telecom, as of January 15, 2020, the number of its 5G package users reached 8 million, which is more than the data released by China Mobile.

As for this year's 5G construction goals, it plans to jointly build 250,000 5G base stations with China Unicom. It also plans to achieve the terminal development goals of 60 million 5G terminals, 3 million VR terminals, 36 million smart home terminals, and 20 million NB modules.

At the same time, at the end of last year, China Telecom also carried out an organizational structure reform and established a key focus area of ​​cloud network + security. Obviously, in the 5G era, China Telecom will use the quality of network and security services as its killer feature.

China Unicom

Last year, China Unicom built a total of 40,000 5G base stations, but the specific number of 5G users has not been officially announced, nor has there been any market analysis. Some media, based on the domestic shipment of more than 10 million 5G mobile phones, speculated that China Unicom's 5G user number would not be too large, and gave the judgment that "China Unicom should be at the bottom of the three major operators."

For 2020, China Unicom's goal is the same as that of China Telecom, which is to jointly build 250,000 5G base stations, and it is planned to complete the annual target one quarter ahead of schedule.

China Unicom doesn’t have much news about 5G, but the recent organizational restructuring of China Unicom at the group level, with the change of its development model to focus on the large market, shows that it may focus on marketing as the main focus of the 5G era in the future. Perhaps to verify this speculation, a media report on February 26 said that China Unicom will offer a 30% discount on all 5G packages.

China Unicom has always used price wars as its main form of competition since the 2G era. In the 4G era, it introduced Internet package rates, which eventually led to the widespread popularization of unlimited traffic packages in the entire industry. It is estimated that China Unicom will continue to use market means to subvert the market in the 5G era.

China Radio and Television

As a new entrant in the communications field, China Radio and Television has little experience in communications. It is not easy to quickly build a 5G network without people, money, and experience. Therefore, in the fierce 5G construction war among the other three major telecommunications operators last year, China Radio and Television basically did not make much noise, and only focused on its own small-scale test network. In addition, it also introduced various strategic partners to carry out 5G layout.

At the end of last year, a draft plan of China Radio and Television leaked into the market, claiming that with the help of the 700M golden frequency band, it would strive to achieve 5G network coverage of more than 95% of the population nationwide by the end of 2022. This is a very ambitious goal, and it depends on whether China Radio and Television can complete it as scheduled.

The recent news about China Radio and Television is that it has obtained a policy dividend of 30% off backbone network settlement, and is also undergoing a "one network across the country" organizational structure transformation to accumulate strength for future 5G construction.