China only holds 10% of 5G patents? Don’t worry, there is still a long way to go.

After many rounds of 3GPP meetings and lengthy technical demonstrations, the standards for the first phase of 5G have been basically determined. From May 21 to 25, the 3GPP working group held the first meeting for the formulation of the first phase of 5G standards in Busan, South Korea, and determined all the contents of the 3GPP R15 standard. According to the 3GPP agenda, it is expected that 3GPP will announce the final standards for the first phase of 5G at the plenary meeting held in the United States in June.

According to industry experts, as of now, Chinese forces (including Huawei, ZTE and other 5G participating manufacturers) have about 150 5G key technology patents, accounting for 10% of the total number of 5G patents that have been confirmed. This ratio seems to be far from the 5 v 5 situation in the minds of the Chinese people that "5G standards are competing against each other in China and the United States." You should know that Qualcomm alone in the United States owns 15% of 5G patents, while others including Nokia account for 11% and Ericsson accounts for 8%.

What causes the discrepancy between the real data and people's impressions? First of all, we have to admit that this problem partially exists. This is mainly due to the conscious bias guidance of domestic companies such as Huawei, and the excessive publicity of the media, which has caused the cognitive bias of the domestic public. On the other hand, the gap is only a temporary state, not the whole truth.

In fact, 5G applications are divided into three scenarios: enhanced mobile broadband eMBB, massive machine type communications (mMTC), and ultra-reliable low-latency communications (uRLLC). Different scenarios represent different technical requirements and different technical standards. The formulation of these technical standards is a very complicated matter. On the one hand, sufficient technical demonstration is required. On the other hand, the complexity is also reflected in the distribution of interests and the competition of forces among countries in the world. Therefore, the entire set of 5G technical standards cannot be determined at the same time, but in stages. According to the 3GPP schedule, the focus of the first stage of the 5G standard is to determine eMBB, that is, enhanced mobile broadband. After all, from the current application level, "human networking" is still the most important application scenario of mobile networks.

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Therefore, China currently holds 10% of the already determined 5G technology standard patents, mainly centered around the eMBB scenario, followed by mMTC and uRLLC. These two scenarios may not be the most important and mainstream scenarios at present, but with the development of the Internet of Things and the advancement of 5G technology, the development space of these two scenarios will far exceed the "Internet of People" scenario. After all, connections based on people are limited, while connections between things are, to some extent, unlimited.

Therefore, if China is currently lagging behind in the development of 5G, then China still has a long way to go to catch up. The Chinese government and the Chinese industry have also realized this and are actively looking for ways to promote the development of 5G. For example, at the China-Japan-ROK Information and Communications Ministers' Meeting held on May 28, a consensus was reached that the three countries will cooperate in the 5G frequency negotiations of international organizations, share some 5G bands, jointly develop 5G communication equipment, share empirical experimental results, and jointly promote the standardization of 5G in Asian countries. This is the first time that the three "neighbors" of China, Japan and South Korea have jointly sought common interests in international communication standards, and their main purpose is to unite and form a joint force to strive for greater benefits.

Catching up and counterattacking is not an easy task, and it can even be said to be fraught with difficulties. Putting aside the United States, which is wealthy and powerful and has a solid foundation, Europe, which has always lagged behind in the development of 5G in our minds, is actually not to be outdone. Nokia and Ericsson alone account for 19% of 5G patents, and their subsequent development momentum will be even faster. For example, the European Commission recently stated in a press release that the European Investment Bank has signed a loan agreement with Ericsson for a total of 250 million euros. Ericsson obtained this loan under the framework of the European Strategic Investment Fund to be used for the research and development of fifth-generation mobile communications (5G) related technologies to enhance Europe's competitiveness in the telecommunications field.

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Therefore, as far as the 5G competition is concerned, China's development situation is not as optimistic as people in China imagine. There are many difficulties and the situation is very grim. However, China also has its own unique advantages, such as strong support at the government level, active cooperation from the three major domestic operators, and the world's largest domestic user market. China's current 5G commercial progress is already ranked first in the world. How to use this advantage to compete for more 5G discourse power and greater development space in the future requires concerted efforts of the domestic industry and strategic guidance at the policy level. After all, there is still a long way to go.