The 5G commercial license has just been officially issued! Here are ten issues that you should pay attention to

On the morning of June 6, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology officially issued 5G commercial licenses to China Telecom, China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Broadcasting Corporation. This also means that at the license level, China has skipped the pre-commercial stage and directly entered the commercial stage, and China's 5G process has been significantly accelerated.

According to media reports, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology held a licensing ceremony at 8:40 today, which lasted for half an hour. The chairmen of the three major operators, China Radio and Television, and China Tower all attended the meeting.

Huawei, ZTE and other industry chain manufacturers immediately expressed their full support for 5G commercial use. Huawei officially stated that it has carried out large-scale 5G commercial trials with China's three major operators in more than 40 cities in China, including actual tests in urban areas, indoors, on highways, subways and other scenarios, all of which have met commercial standards.

It is worth mentioning that the previously rumored China Radio and Television also appeared on the list. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a "Basic Telecommunications Business Operation License" to China Radio and Television Network Co., Ltd., approving China Radio and Television Network Co., Ltd. to operate domestic Internet data transmission services and domestic communication facilities services nationwide. This means that China Radio and Television has become the fourth largest basic telecommunications operator after China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom. However, industry insiders are not optimistic about China Radio and Television independently carrying out 5G business in the form of a separate network construction, because the cost of network construction is too high.

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In fact, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has already warmed up for the issuance of 5G licenses. This morning, the People's Daily once again confirmed the news that 5G licenses will be issued today.

Earlier on June 3, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced that: "At present, global 5G is entering a critical period of commercial deployment. Adhering to the combination of independent innovation and open cooperation, my country's 5G industry has established a competitive advantage. The 5G standard is a unified international standard jointly formulated by the global industry, and my country's declared standard essential patents account for more than 30%. In the technical trial stage, many foreign companies such as Nokia, Ericsson, Qualcomm, and Intel have been deeply involved. With the joint efforts of all parties, my country's 5G has already laid a commercial foundation. In the near future, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will issue 5G commercial licenses, and my country will officially enter the first year of 5G commercialization. As always, we welcome domestic and foreign companies to actively participate in my country's 5G network construction and application promotion, and share the fruits of my country's 5G development."

Leifeng.com learned that yesterday evening, the industry began to hear about the issuance of licenses, believing that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will issue 5G licenses on June 6. According to Phoenix Technology, some operators have purchased advertisements on the Weibo platform to prepare for the issuance of 5G licenses tomorrow. Terminal and communication equipment manufacturers are also contacting the media to prepare for this. Leifeng.com verified several operators and industry insiders yesterday, and they all acquiesced to this news.

Interestingly, the official Twitter account of People’s Daily “announced” this news at 11:15 last night, which can be regarded as official evidence.

More than five years after 4G commercialization, 5G licenses have finally been officially issued, which means that operators can legitimately announce the official commercialization of 5G services, and the pace of operators' deployment of 5G-related work will also be accelerated.

The development of 5G can be generally divided into three stages. The first is the stage of standard formulation, technology research and development, and product development. The second is the stage of spectrum allocation, network construction, and policy improvement. The third is the stage of application promotion and building a converged application industry ecosystem. We have entered the third stage, and the official commercial use of 5G will greatly accelerate the exploration of applications and form a 5G industry chain.

Before the licenses were officially issued, operators had already started large-scale trials. In April, China Unicom Chairman Wang Xiaochu announced that 5G trial networks would be officially launched in seven cities, including Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Shenzhen and Xiong'an. In addition, China Unicom has also launched 5G networks in hot spots in 33 major cities and informatization applications in some industries, with the aim of providing a huge trial platform to explore 5G commercial cases.

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Based on the information from the entire network, Leifeng.com sorted out the ten most concerned questions of users and gave brief answers:

Do I need to change my phone or SIM card in the 5G era?

Existing mobile phones do not support 5G networks. If you want to use 5G networks, you must replace your terminal. Alternatively, you can connect to the 5G network through a CPE device. The mobile phone connects to the CPE via WiFi to use the 5G network, which is an indirect mode.

According to previous statements by operators, users can experience 5G high-speed Internet and voice services without changing cards or numbers.

After the licenses are issued, when will 5G commercial terminals for consumers be available for purchase?

Leifeng.com learned from industry insiders that the licenses will be issued first, and then the commercial terminals will be sent for testing, and the network access certificates will be issued in about a month. This means that it will be at least a month before consumers can buy commercial machines. Taking into account factors such as the terminal manufacturers' market promotion, terminal manufacturers are not in a hurry to launch 5G terminals on a large scale. The first batch of terminals is mainly for brand reputation.

In terms of price, the price of the first batch of terminals will definitely go up, and it is expected to cost at least 10,000 yuan. For reference, the Galaxy S10 5G version starts at $1,299.99 in the United States, and the Huawei Mate X folding screen 5G version is priced at 2,299 euros overseas. It is a little reassuring that 5G terminals will drop in price after popularization and eventually return to the normal level of around a few thousand yuan.

After the license is issued, when will the 5G commercial network for consumers be available?

Logically speaking, with the official issuance of 5G licenses, the conditions for 5G networks are already in place, but the scale of operators' 5G network deployment is still relatively small and is still in a pilot stage.

In addition, an operator source revealed that due to cost and return on investment considerations, 5G networks will definitely not be rolled out on a large scale in the early stages. Instead, they will be explored in hot spots and some typical 5G application scenarios. During this period, consumers can experience 5G networks in specific scenarios, and it will take at least 1-2 years for 5G networks to achieve wide coverage.

What are the first 5G packages available?

Judging from the rumors released by the operators, the model of charging mainly based on a single dimension of traffic will change in the 4G era. Operators hope to provide multi-dimensional, multi-dimensional, and multi-mode billing. Specifically, they may charge by indicators such as bandwidth, latency, and number of connections.

However, this more complex billing model is more likely to be aimed at industries rather than ordinary consumers. For example, it can provide "light customization" services to meet the different needs of scenarios such as autonomous driving and the Internet of Things, and can also reduce the 5G network usage costs of industry customers.

The common needs of ordinary consumers are basically the same. It is difficult to change the consumption habits inherited from the 2G era in large-traffic scenarios, and major changes are not expected. In terms of price, it will not exceed the price of existing packages, and the unit traffic price will definitely be reduced. However, the average traffic of 5G packages may be much higher than that of existing 4G packages.

Which frequency bands are 5G commercial frequencies concentrated in?

Last year, three operators obtained trial frequencies respectively. Currently, domestic 5G commercial use is mainly concentrated in sub 6GHz. These frequency bands will be the focus of operators' efforts for a long time to come.

China Telecom has obtained 5G test frequency resources with a total bandwidth of 100MHz at 3400MHz-3500MHz;

China Mobile has obtained 5G test frequency resources in the 2515MHz-2675MHz and 4800MHz-4900MHz bands. Among them, the 2515-2575MHz, 2635-2675MHz and 4800-4900MHz bands are newly added bands, and the 2575-2635MHz band is a re-cultivation of China Mobile's existing TD-LTE (4G) band;

China Unicom has obtained 5G trial frequency resources with a total bandwidth of 100MHz from 3500MHz to 3600MHz.

From a global perspective, is China's pace of 5G commercialization fast or slow?

Before China officially issued 5G licenses, South Korea, the United States, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom had already officially announced the commercialization of 5G, but generally speaking, everyone is still on the same starting line. The specific launch dates of each country are as follows: April 3 in the United States, April 5 in South Korea, April 8 in Switzerland, and May 30 in the United Kingdom.

GSMA predicts that by the end of this year, 5G services will be available in 29 markets around the world, with the number of connections reaching 10 million.

Did China issue 5G licenses ahead of schedule? Why?

The answer is yes. Previously, the industry expected 5G commercialization to be in 2020, and there were also reports that licenses would be issued in September 2019, but neither caught up with the early pace of 5G. The early issuance of licenses means that 5G commercialization will be accelerated, policies will continue to be strengthened, and 5G will be implemented.

China Merchants Securities pointed out that the issuance of licenses indicates that China's official 5G commercialization has accelerated, demonstrating China's determination to fully promote 5G commercialization, and proving that 5G will not be affected by the Sino-US trade dispute and Huawei's entry into the entity list. It is expected that policies will continue to be strengthened in the future.

5G licenses are issued "suddenly". Are the industry chain manufacturers ready?

The answer can be found at the regular policy briefing of the State Council on May 21. Chen Zhaoxiong, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said that with the joint efforts of all parties in the industry, 5G technology and products are becoming increasingly mature, and the main links of the industrial chain such as systems, chips, and terminals have basically reached commercial levels and are ready for commercial deployment.

5G network is coming, will 2/3/4G network be retired?

The answer is obviously no. Even though we are now in the mature stage of the 4G era, 2G and 3G networks still exist on a large scale. Consumers do not have to worry about not upgrading to 5G networks affecting their existing user experience.

Yang Jie, Chairman of China Mobile, said that 5G and 4G will coexist for a long time, and China Mobile will promote the synergy between 5G and 4G to meet the needs of users for data and voice services. This fully shows that in the next few years, operators will face a network of "four generations living together". Although it is time-consuming, labor-intensive and costly to maintain, it will be difficult to complete the withdrawal of the network within a few years.

Globally, where does China's 5G strength rank?

According to the "5G Ecosystem: Risks and Opportunities to the U.S. Department of Defense" released by the U.S. Department of Defense, China, South Korea, the United States and Japan are leading in this field; the United Kingdom, Germany and France can be regarded as "second-tier" countries; while Singapore, Russia and Canada constitute the "third tier".

Gong Daning, senior engineer of the Policy and Economic Research Institute of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, introduced that in terms of technical standards, the 5G concepts, application scenarios and technical indicators advocated by my country have been incorporated into the 5G definition of the International Telecommunication Union. Key technologies such as flexible system design, polarization codes, massive antennas and new network architecture proposed by Chinese companies have become the focus of international standards.

As of May 2019, among the 5G standard essential patent declarations of more than 20 companies worldwide, Chinese companies accounted for more than 30%, ranking first. In terms of industrial development, my country took the lead in launching 5G technology research and development trials, accelerating the development and industrialization of 5G equipment. At present, my country's 5G mid-band system equipment, terminal chips, and smartphones are in the first echelon of the global industry.

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