Although it is generally believed that the peak period of 5G investment is passing, judging from the situation in the first half of 2023, my country's 5G construction is still running fast.
At a recent press conference on the development of industry and informatization in the first half of 2023, sources from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology revealed that by the end of June this year, my country had a total of 2.937 million 5G base stations, approaching the 3 million mark, covering all prefecture-level cities, urban areas and counties. urban area. At the same time, 5G mobile phone users reached 676 million, 5G traffic accounted for 42.9%, and mobile Internet of Things terminal users exceeded 2.12 billion.
01 Integrate into 60 major categories of national economy
In the first half of this year, my country's information and communication industry maintained a steady and rapid growth trend, providing strong support for the construction of a manufacturing power, a network power, and a digital China. It is mainly reflected in three aspects: steady progress in network construction, in-depth expansion of integrated applications, and growing industrial foundation Tamping.
In terms of network construction, as of the end of June, the cumulative number of 5G base stations in my country reached 2.937 million, of which 5G co-construction and sharing base stations exceeded 1.73 million. The world's first trial commercial use of 5G inter-network roaming was launched, and the 5G network accelerated to become intensive, efficient, green and low-carbon. develop.
In terms of integrated applications, 5G industry applications have been integrated into 60 national economic categories, with more than 50,000 application cases. Carry out the "100,000,000,000,000,000,000" 5G factory campaign, covering 12 key industries such as electronic information, equipment manufacturing, petrochemicals, and steel. 5G new calls, virtual digital human and other new applications are actively innovating, leveraging the steady growth of traffic consumption. 5G mobile phone users reached 676 million, and 5G traffic accounted for 42.9%.
In terms of consolidating the industrial foundation, the 5G lightweight core network and customized base stations have been gradually implemented, and the cost has been greatly reduced. The price of 5G modules has dropped to 400 yuan. What is particularly noteworthy is that in the first half of this year, my country issued a new version of the radio frequency allocation regulations, taking the lead in dividing the 6GHz frequency band for 5G/6G systems in the world.
02 5G construction continues to be "moderately advanced"
For the future development of my country's 5G, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has made it clear that it will adhere to the concept of "moderately advanced" and build a solid 5G digital base.
Zhao Zhiguo said at the press conference on the development of industry and informatization in the first half of 2023 that he will actively promote the construction of 5G networks, continue to expand the breadth and depth of 5G network coverage, promote the deep coverage of 5G networks in key scenarios in urban areas, and further extend to towns and rural areas , "Carry out the special action of 'signal upgrade' to comprehensively improve the quality of 5G network in key scenarios."
At the same time, my country will further promote universal telecommunications services, accelerate the construction of "broadband frontiers", and continue to optimize the coverage of networks in rural and border areas.
In terms of expanding the scale of 5G applications, my country adheres to separate policies, expands the scale of applications in leading areas such as industry, mining, electric power, and ports, and deeply explores typical application scenarios in pilot areas such as medical care, education, and cultural tourism. Zhao Zhiguo said that the implementation of the 5G application "751 Project" will accelerate the creation of an upgraded version of "5G + Industrial Internet". This year, no less than 3,000 companies will be promoted to build 5G factories. Research and development to promote 5G applications to continue to reduce costs and scale up.
In terms of core technology innovation, my country will strengthen the research and development of 5G enhanced technology, accelerate the maturity of technologies and industries such as millimeter waves, lightweight modules, and high-precision positioning, and actively explore the research and development of 6G potential key technologies.
03From "well-built" to "well-used"
"China is the world's leading 5G market. By the end of 2022, China will account for 60% of global 5G connections." The organizer of the conference, the Global Mobile Communications System Association (GSMA), pointed out in the "2023 China Mobile Economic Report", Global operators are increasingly turning to 5G industry applications, and China is at the forefront.
"5G development has entered the second half." Wen Ku, chairman of the China Communications Standards Association, said during the conference that in the past four years of commercial use, China's 5G development has gone through three development stages: strategic layout, system promotion, and application implementation. 5G commercialization has made remarkable achievements. The construction of virtual private network and sufficient frequency resource supply have supported China's 5G development in the world to achieve high-quality results.
"China's 5G construction deployment and large-scale application are solidly advanced, and the upgrade from 'well-built' to 'well-used' is accelerated." Zhao Zhiguo's comments on the development characteristics of my country's current 5G industry during this conference have also become a vivid display of the content of the conference annotation. According to his introduction, in addition to network construction, my country has built a relatively complete industrial chain such as 5G systems, chips, terminals, and instruments. 5G technology capabilities continue to make breakthroughs, and capabilities such as large uplink bandwidth, network slicing, and edge computing continue to improve, which strongly supports the 5G personal market and the application needs of some vertical industries.
"Only when it becomes a part of the production system, can 5G achieve large-scale application in the industry." Meng Wanzhou, Huawei's rotating chairman and CFO, said at this conference that it has been four years since the global 5G commercial use, triggered by 5G, cloud, and AI. The chain reaction of 5G is constantly creating new formats. 5G has accelerated the explosion of new applications such as cloud mobile phones, new car networks, naked-eye 3D, and XR immersive experience. The application of 5G technology has significantly stimulated the consumption of one of the "troika". In Meng Wanzhou's view, this also means that 5G is crossing the inflection point from quantitative change to qualitative change.
The innovation of 5G applications has also brought positive feedback to the entire industry. Statistics show that China's 5G users will exceed 561 million in 2022, 1.5 billion 5G connections will be realized globally in 2023, and 5 billion 5G connections will be realized by 2030. The contribution of the global mobile network industry to GDP will reach 6 trillion US dollars.
04 6G research and development is ready
With my country's 5G leading the world, the next stage of tasks has also been pushed to the foreground. Jin Zhuanglong, minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, confirmed during the China Communications Exhibition held in early June that he will continue to enhance the advantages of the entire industry chain in the fields of mobile communications and optical communications, plan forward-looking layouts in frontier fields such as the next-generation Internet, and comprehensively promote 6G technology research and development.
At this year's MWC, 6G has also become the most concerned topic in the industry chain besides 5G. At the 6G Collaborative Innovation Forum held concurrently during the exhibition, Gao Tongqing, deputy general manager of China Mobile, pointed out that 6G is a mobile information network with deep integration of synaesthesia, computing and intelligence, and a global coverage of heaven and earth. Based on the development and evolution of 5G, it provides communication, perception The multi-dimensional capability service system integrating , computing, artificial intelligence, big data, security, etc. is a concentrated expression of various cutting-edge technologies and will drive more cross-field collaborative innovations.
As the leading role in the advancement of the communications industry, operators are still the key leaders in my country's 6G research and development. According to Gao Tongqing, China Mobile is the first in the world to carry out 6G research, including the establishment of a future research institute, the establishment of an innovation consortium, and the development direction of technology. At this stage, efforts are being made to build a source of original technology, including accelerating integration into the global 6G innovation network, leading 6G vision and demand, tackling key 6G landmark technologies, and building a 6G collaborative innovation base.
According to Ke Ruiwen during the MWC, China Telecom is also systematically carrying out 6G to simplify network architecture innovation, focusing on key core technologies such as near-area cellular integration (P-RAN) and space-space integration, and cooperating with standards organizations, Industry partners will work closely together to promote the formulation of a globally unified 6G international standard.
In the process leading to 6G, 5.5G (Note: The industry is called 5G-Advanced, translated as "5G Enhanced", referred to as "5G-A") is regarded as a transitional key technology. Therefore, equipment manufacturers who undertake the network construction needs of operators have also begun to actively participate in 5.5G. Meng Wanzhou revealed that Huawei is helping many operators around the world to actively explore 5.5G commercial use. It will better match scenarios such as the Internet of People, Internet of Things, perception, and high-end manufacturing, and incubate more new business opportunities." She said.
Being at the forefront often also means that you need to face more challenges first. Gao Tongqing said that the current 6G development still faces challenges such as insufficient supply of original technology, insufficient cross-industry integration, and insufficient industrial foundation. Wang Xiaoyun, Chief Scientist of China Mobile, added that compared with 5G, 6G has a longer R&D cycle, earlier start, and technology divergence, so it requires original technological breakthroughs, integrated technological innovations, and network expansion innovations.
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