Review of 5G in 2019: 5G sounded the rally call for commercial use

"5G is like a newborn baby, new from head to toe". 2019 is the first year of 5G commercialization. 5G, which shoulders the mission of changing society, has undergone unprecedented changes from scenarios to applications, from networks to technologies. In the 5G era, the entire industry faces unprecedented opportunities and challenges. We hope that more brave "trendsetters" will seize the opportunities and make greater contributions to the development of the times.

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5G licenses issued, Communications Exhibition kicks off 5G commercial train

On June 6, 2019, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology officially issued 5G commercial licenses to China Telecom, China Mobile, China Unicom and China Broadcasting Corporation, which means that China has officially entered the first year of 5G commercialization. With the issuance of 5G licenses, operators can accelerate 5G construction, promote digital transformation of various industries, and get rid of the current development bottleneck of traffic management business.

After the licenses were issued, enterprises in the industry chain began an intensive research and development process, which enabled the development of the 5G industry to make considerable progress and lay the foundation for commercial use. On October 31, China announced the official commercial use of 5G. Chen Zhaoxiong, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and China Telecom Chairman Ke Ruiwen, China Mobile Chairman Yang Jie, China Unicom Chairman Wang Xiaochu, and China Tower Chairman Tong Jilu jointly launched the 5G commercial launch ceremony. Chen Zhaoxiong predicts that by the end of 2019, more than 130,000 5G base stations will be opened nationwide. In the future, the deployment of 5G networks will be accelerated, and co-construction and sharing will be deepened to build a 5G boutique network covering the whole country with advanced technology, excellent quality and efficient operation as soon as possible. Subsequently, China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom announced the first list of 50 5G commercial cities. my country has officially started a new journey of 5G commercial use.

113,000 5G base stations have been opened across the country, and co-construction and sharing have become an important direction

After the issuance of 5G licenses, operators' 5G network construction has been accelerating. According to statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, 113,000 5G base stations have been opened across the country, and it is expected to reach 130,000 by the end of the year.

China Telecom adheres to the SA direction, promotes the healthy development of the global SA industry, and leads the global 5G industry to jointly formulate SA's independent brand.

China Mobile insists on using SA as the target network architecture, and accelerates the construction of high-quality networks in accordance with the goal requirements of "covering the whole country, advanced technology, and excellent quality". This year, it will deploy 5G networks in more than 50 cities and provide commercial services. Next year, it will provide 5G commercial services in all cities at the prefecture level and above across the country.

China Unicom is unswervingly promoting co-construction and sharing, and has jointly built the world's first 5G co-construction and sharing network with China Telecom. Through co-construction and sharing, coverage has doubled, speed has doubled, and services have been improved. Customers can enjoy 5G network services with greater bandwidth, higher speed, and wider coverage. Currently, the two parties have opened 5G co-construction and sharing base stations in 24 provinces and cities. The latest test data shows that the peak rate of the co-construction and sharing 5G network can reach 2.5Gbit/s, which is the highest rate measured in the world's existing 5G network.

Co-construction and sharing is a new trend in 5G network construction. On September 9, 2019, China Unicom and China Telecom carried out 5G network co-construction and sharing cooperation, especially the continuous 5G frequency sharing between the two parties. This will help reduce the cost of 5G network construction and operation and maintenance, efficiently achieve 5G network coverage, quickly form 5G service capabilities, enhance the market competitiveness of 5G networks and services, improve network benefits and asset operation efficiency, and achieve mutual benefit and win-win results for both parties.

5G testing is progressing smoothly, with more attention paid to millimeter wave in the future

my country launched 5G technology research and trials in early 2016, and has been promoting the development of the 5G industry in stages. The system equipment basically meets the needs of 5G commercial use. In 2019, the 5G enhanced technology R&D trial was launched, focusing on millimeter wave technology and product testing, and chip and system interconnection testing.

On November 1, during the 2019 Communications Exhibition, Xu Fei, leader of the IMT-2020 (5G) Promotion Group's test working group, summarized the important achievements made by the IMT-2020 (5G) Promotion Group's test group in 5G enhanced technology testing and announced future testing plans.

Regarding the important achievements in the 5G enhanced technology test work, Xu Fei said that HiSilicon, Qualcomm, MTK, and Spreadtrum chip manufacturers, Huawei, Ericsson, China Information and Communications Technology, Nokia Bell, ZTE and Samsung system manufacturers actively participated in chip and interoperability testing. HiSilicon, MTK and Unisoc launched low- and medium-frequency terminal chips that support NSA and SA. All chip manufacturers actively carried out interoperability testing with system manufacturers, which promoted the commercial use of my country's 5G independent networking.

Huawei, Ericsson, China Information and Communications Technology Group, Nokia Bell, ZTE system manufacturers, HiSilicon, and Qualcomm chip manufacturers actively participated in the 5G millimeter wave test. Huawei, ZTE, and Nokia Bell completed the main functions, RF, and field performance tests of the millimeter wave key technology tests, realized the main key technologies of millimeter waves, and carried out millimeter wave radiation RF tests, supporting my country's millimeter wave planning work, and will further improve and optimize the performance indicators of millimeter wave equipment in the future.

In the next step, the promotion group will focus on millimeter wave equipment and networking testing, as well as small-scale application trials and demonstrations, actively promote the development and optimization of millimeter wave base stations, chips, and RF modules, study the applicable scenarios of millimeter waves, and explore the integrated application of millimeter waves and industrial fields.

Frequencies continue to rise, WRC-19 confirms more frequency bands for 5G

To meet the needs of more high-speed applications, the world has turned its attention to the millimeter wave band with larger bandwidth. In 2019, the exploration of 5G services gradually shifted to high-frequency bands. On November 23, the ITU World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-19) determined more frequency bands for 5G, including 24.25~27.5GHz, 37~43.5GHz, 45.5~47GHz, 47.2~48.2GHz and 66~71GHz.

One of the most important applications of millimeter wave is to empower vertical industries, especially industrial manufacturing. Millimeter wave is widely used in these scenarios. Good planning of millimeter wave spectrum will not only have an impact on the mobile industry, but also on vertical industries, especially industrial Internet and industrial manufacturing. High-bandwidth and high-speed applications require millimeter wave spectrum. 5G millimeter wave is expected to continue to strengthen China's digital infrastructure, especially considering its comprehensive economic transformation process, and create new momentum for an innovation-driven economy. 5G plus millimeter wave spectrum can help unleash the potential of low-latency, data-intensive applications that can bring changes to a variety of industries and use cases.

5G applications are flourishing in various vertical fields

With the construction of 5G networks, what we heard more in 2019 was the rich and colorful 5G application exploration carried out by the 5G industry chain.

For example, China Mobile is jointly innovating with the industry in 14 vertical industries and is creating 100 demonstration application scenarios: it has joined hands with Ningbo Port, which has the largest cargo throughput in the world, to build the first 5G+ smart port with remote control of 5G port machinery, reducing manpower input by 75%; it has built a 5G+ smart factory with Xinfengming, the world's second largest chemical fiber company, to solve the industry-recognized problem of floating silk; it has joined hands with the China-Japan Friendship Hospital to realize the first 5G remote emergency consultation based on a national platform, realizing real-time transmission of medical data at the GB level; combined with 5G high-precision positioning technology, it has built the country's largest urban-level 5G vehicle-road collaboration demonstration zone with a length of 159 kilometers in Wuhan, Hubei.

China Telecom has also carried out extensive exploration of 5G applications. In the field of 5G+smart healthcare, China Telecom's 5G helped Jishuitan Hospital successfully complete the world's first multi-center joint remote orthopedic surgery with robots; in the field of 5G+smart cities, China Telecom's 5G+emergency command system helped Zhejiang Province play an important role in fighting the "Lekima" typhoon; in the field of industrial Internet, China Telecom's 5G network characteristics are empowering various industries such as ports, ships, construction, metallurgy, and automobile manufacturing, helping traditional industrial enterprises to transform and upgrade to smart manufacturing.

China Unicom has made positive efforts in cooperation with vertical industries. On March 12, 2019, China Unicom helped Beijing Tsinghua Chang Gung Hospital realize global 5G multi-center remote collaborative surgery; on May 30, China Unicom joined hands with Qingdao Huituo to launch a smart mine demonstration operation at Inner Mongolia Baoli Coal Co., Ltd.; on August 5, China Unicom completed a multi-site collaborative 5G networked drone 4K inspection business demonstration in Beijing, Tianjin and Hangzhou; on September 26, China Unicom, China Eastern Airlines and Huawei officially released the smart travel integrated service system at Beijing Daxing International Airport; on October 11, China Unicom realized 5G SA industrial-grade control at Qingdao Port Smart Terminal; on October 18, China Unicom assisted the 7th Military Games with 5G+VR and ultra-high-definition live broadcast.

5G terminal types continue to expand, and 5G pre-order users have exceeded 10 million

The terminal industry chain has also actively responded to the commercial use of 5G. Within half a year, 5G terminals have formed a relatively sound supply capacity of multiple categories and brands, mainly mobile phone products. At present, a total of 71 manufacturers have developed 172 5G terminals, of which 38 have been officially put into commercial use, including 23 mobile phones, 9 wireless gateway CPEs, 4 wireless hotspots and 2 notebooks with built-in 5G Internet access modules.

So far, eight manufacturers have launched a total of 23 5G mobile phones. Terminals have not only completely gotten rid of the "bottleneck" role in the early development of 3G and 4G, but have also become one of the most active links in the current 5G ecosystem. In the field of terminal complete machines, among the eight manufacturers that have launched 5G commercial mobile phones, six are domestic manufacturers, namely Huawei, vivo, OPPO, Xiaomi, ZTE and OnePlus, and Lenovo, Honor and Nubia will soon join them.

In the field of 5G terminal chip platforms, Huawei HiSilicon took the lead in launching the 5G baseband chip Balong 5000 that supports both NSA and SA, and then launched the 5G SoC mobile phone chip platform Kirin 990. MTK and Samsung have released the mid-to-high-end 5G chip platforms MTK 6889 and Exynos980 respectively this year. Most of the 5G mobile phones currently on the market use Qualcomm's X50 baseband chip that only supports NSA and cannot support 5G SA, but Qualcomm's next-generation X55 baseband and new 5G SoC chip platforms such as Snapdragon 865, MTK 6885, Samsung 980 and subsequent products can all support SA. Unisoc has released the 5G communication technology platform Makalu and its first 5G baseband chip Ivy 510, which can support both 5G SA independent networking and NSA non-independent networking.

Users' enthusiasm for 5G services is also rising, and the number of 5G reservation users is growing. In late September, China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom, the three major operators, launched the "5G Reservation" activity one after another. Users can make reservations to become 5G commercial customers through various means such as online and offline, and obtain multiple discounts and experiences in mobile phones, packages, and services. According to the data from the reservation interface of the three major operators' clients, as of 17:00 on October 10, the number of 5G reservation users of the three major operators was close to 11 million, of which China Mobile had nearly 6.35 million, China Telecom had over 2.23 million, and China Unicom had nearly 2.25 million. Recently, data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology showed that there were 870,000 users who had signed up for 5G packages, and 5G was developing well.

In short, 2019 is the first year of 5G. The 5G assembly call has been sounded, and the entire industry is going all out to create a new 5G era with passion and sweat.