With 5G commercialization imminent, what new moves will the three major operators make?

5G pre-commercialization is imminent, and the three major operators are racing to grab the "C position". Let's take a look at the recent new moves by the three major operators in the 5G field.

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China Telecom

• 5G independent network test
• Hello 5G Action Plan

(1) Official launch of 5G independent networking test. On September 7, China Telecom's 5G Joint Open Laboratory built a 5G model network based on an open platform independently controlled by the largest operator and officially launched the 5G SA (independent networking) test. This is the first 5G technology verification based on open source technology and layered decoupled fully open architecture organized by the largest operator in the industry after 3GPP released the first SA standard version in June 2018, marking the entry of the 5G SA standard into actual product implementation.

(2) Hello 5G Action Plan. At the 10th Tianyi Intelligent Ecosystem Industry Summit Forum held on September 13, Yang Jie, Chairman of China Telecom, delivered a keynote speech entitled "Embrace the New Era of Intelligence and Create a New 5G Ecosystem Together", and officially announced the "Hello5G Action" plan, which was the first domestic operator to systematically propose a 5G industry ecosystem layout plan.

Yang Jie pointed out that China Telecom has four propositions for building a 5G smart ecosystem: jointly promoting the maturity of 5G standards, jointly building 5G smart networks, jointly innovating 5G application models, and jointly prospering the 5G terminal industry.

China Telecom will set up a 5G Innovation Center; conduct trials in 17 cities; establish a 5G Application Innovation Alliance within the year; release a white paper on 5G application cooperation; and establish a 5G terminal R&D alliance to effectively aggregate the strength of all parties in the industry chain and jointly advance my country's 5G construction process.

China Mobile

• 100 million yuan to support 5G joint creation
• Build 1,000 5G base stations

(1) 100 million yuan in funding to support 5G joint innovation projects. At the recently held "1st China Radio Conference", Huang Yuhong, deputy director of the China Mobile Communications Research Institute, said that the industry should be open to innovation and build a new 5G integrated smart ecosystem. In terms of 5G joint innovation, China Mobile will provide more than 100 million yuan in funding support for the 5G joint innovation project and provide a test environment for more than 1,000 5G base stations in 17 cities this year.

(2) 1,000 5G base stations will be built this year. At the China Mobile Internet of Things Developer Conference held on September 16, China Mobile stated that it is vigorously promoting 5G new technology research and network scale trials, and plans to build 1,000 5G base stations in 2018. Among them, Suzhou, Jiangsu is conducting the first batch of 5G scale trials of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

(3) Establish an autonomous driving alliance. On September 19, the first China Mobile 5G Autonomous Driving Summit was held in Beijing. At the meeting, China Mobile released China's first 5G autonomous driving vehicle test road and "Leading Plan" and established a 5G Autonomous Driving Alliance. The 5G autonomous driving vehicle test road is located in Fangshan District, Beijing. After the release of this road, Fangshan District will become the first demonstration area in China that can truly carry out 5G autonomous driving research and development and testing.

China Unicom

• Launch 5G+8K ultra-high-definition applications
• 5G NEXT

(1) “5G+Video” plan. At the China Unicom “5G+Video” Ecological Conference held on September 5, China Unicom released the “5G+Video” promotion plan and simultaneously launched the China Unicom “5G+Video” partner program. According to official Unicom news, on September 19, China Unicom and Alibaba Cloud completed the country’s first professional-grade 5G+8K application at the 2018 Hangzhou Yunqi Conference, with the highest download speed reaching 20Gbps.

(2) “5G NEXT” plan. On August 13, Beijing Unicom officially launched the “5G NEXT” plan, and the first batch of 5G sites in Beijing were officially launched simultaneously, marking the beginning of the construction of 5G mobile communication networks in Beijing and the capital is entering the 5G era.

In addition, China Unicom is actively creating a new 5G industry cooperation ecosystem and has taken solid steps, such as establishing the China Unicom 5G Industrial Internet Industry Alliance, the 5G Joint Innovation Laboratory, and the 5G+AI Joint Laboratory.

Spectrum released this month, 5G commercialization continues to advance

It is reported that my country will officially release the final licensing plan for 5G spectrum resources in the near future, and the country's 5G commercialization process will surely be further accelerated.

Regarding the commercialization time, the three major operators have basically determined to carry out 5G pilot projects in key cities in 2018, pre-commercialization in 2019, and official commercialization in 2020 in accordance with the plan of the IMT-2020 (5G) Promotion Group.

Previously, the three major operators have also announced the cities where small-scale commercial trials will be carried out.

• China Telecom has previously confirmed six cities for 5G pilot projects, namely Xiong'an, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Suzhou, Chengdu and Lanzhou. In addition, the scope of the pilot will be further expanded according to the requirements of relevant state ministries and commissions, and another six cities will be added. Recently, China Telecom's 5G pilot cities were initially determined to be a "6+6" model, and now it has been clearly expanded to 17 cities.
• China Mobile said that it will carry out 5G field tests in five cities, including Hangzhou, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Suzhou and Wuhan. More than 100 5G base stations will be built in each city. 5G business application demonstrations will also be carried out in 12 cities including Beijing, Chengdu and Shenzhen.
• China Unicom will carry out 5G pilot projects in 16 cities including Beijing, Tianjin, Qingdao, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Wuhan, Guiyang, Chengdu, Shenzhen, Fuzhou, Zhengzhou and Shenyang.

I believe that more cities will join the pilot program in the future. Overall, the three major operators are moving at a similar pace towards 5G commercialization, and the general timeline is relatively consistent: pre-commercialization in 2019 and official commercialization in 2020.