When communication equipment manufacturers are evolving from 5G to 5.5G, and even shouted to gain a leading edge in 6G, the electricity bill has become an unbearable burden for operators.
People in the industry pointed out that the cost of 5G base stations is as high as 500,000. At present, the number of 5G base stations that have been built in China has reached more than 2.9 million, and the estimated investment is nearly 1.5 trillion yuan. The huge investment has overwhelmed operators.
In the past two years, China Mobile has not released data on electricity bills, but in the first half of 2019 it announced the cost of electricity bills. At that time, its electricity bills increased by 50%, and the number of 5G base stations built was only about 300,000. According to the data at the time and the number of 5G base stations it has now exceeded 1.8 million, it is estimated that the electricity bills of 5G base stations are approaching 100 billion, which almost swallowed up all its profits.
In contrast, the combined profit of China Unicom and China Telecom is only 34.8 billion yuan, which is less than one-third of China Mobile. The high 5G base station electricity bill may not help even if the profits of these two operators are filled in. It is no wonder that the number of 5G base stations jointly built by these two operators is far less than that of China Mobile.
Faced with many problems of high-frequency 5G, the three major operators are now beginning to build low-frequency 5G. Although the rate and delay of low-frequency 5G are far from the theoretical rate and delay of 5G, it can greatly reduce construction costs and operating costs. However, even so, the current 5G network coverage is still far inferior to 4G, let alone covering vast rural areas and western deserts and Gobi areas.
In contrast, the US Starlink has no such concerns at all. The US Starlink can cover vast rural areas, Gobi, deserts and other areas, truly realizing the purpose of connecting to the Internet anytime, anywhere.
The most important thing is that the US Starlink does not need electricity bills. Starlink’s satellites are mainly powered by solar energy after launch. It can be said that Starlink’s investment is almost a one-time investment. The subsequent operating costs are much lower than ground 5G technology, but its coverage effect is much better than 5G.
In contrast, if China wants to build a 5G network covering the whole country, people in the industry believe that the number of 5G base stations that need to be built may require millions or even nearly tens of millions. However, operators themselves can no longer afford the high construction costs of 5G networks and the crushing electricity bills. It is no wonder that they are not too enthusiastic about the recently announced 5.5G. 5.5G uses higher frequency bands, and the construction cost and electricity cost are higher.
Of course, American Starlink is not without its weaknesses. Mobile phones cannot easily access the Starlink network. If you directly install a satellite antenna on your mobile phone, the mobile phone will not only be extremely bloated and consume more power, but also the cost of use is much higher than that of ground mobile communications. In addition, the signal of Starlink can be blocked by leaves, tunnels, ceilings, etc., which has caused satellite communication technology to serve a small number of people. Under such circumstances, American Starlink cannot completely replace ground mobile communication technology.
Generally speaking, it is still very necessary for China to actively develop 5.5G and even 6G. Satellite communication cannot completely replace terrestrial mobile communication. However, 5.5G and 6G technologies need to thoroughly cover high-frequency bands. Otherwise, they are likely to be hindered by various difficulties like the current 5G. In real life, people still use 4G networks. China has hundreds of millions of mobile phone numbers exceeding 1.6 billion, and the number of real 5G users is only about 600 million.