5G has become a new engine of economic growth

The construction and application of 5G networks in China are accelerating. As of November this year, 1.396 million 5G base stations have been built, 497 million 5G end users have been built, and more than 1,800 "5G + industrial Internet" projects are under construction.

While significantly stimulating consumption, 5G has also played an important role in stabilizing investment and driving the development of the industrial chain. Experts believe that the new digital infrastructure represented by 5G is the core of the new infrastructure and has become an important engine driving a new round of economic growth.

Network construction goes hand in hand with quantity and quality

Continuous coverage of outdoor 5G signals is achieved within the fifth ring road of Beijing, Anhui Province completes the goal of "5G network basically achieves regional coverage at or above the township level" two years ahead of schedule, and all districts and counties in Chongqing achieve full coverage of 5G networks... The speed of 5G network construction is accelerating.

"China's 5G development has made remarkable achievements that lead the world." Xie Cun, director of the Department of Information and Communication Development of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, introduced that at present, the number of 5G base stations built in China accounts for more than 70% of the world, which is the world's largest and most technologically advanced 5G independent networking network, and all prefecture-level cities and urban areas in the country, more than 97% of the county urban areas and 40% of the townships and towns have achieved 5G network coverage; the number of 5G end users accounts for more than 80% of the world; more than 10,000 5G application innovation cases in the country, covering industry, medical care, education, transportation and other industries.

China's 5G development also has a leading edge in terms of standards and technologies. Public data show that in the global 5G standard essential patents, the number of patent declarations of Chinese enterprises ranks first in the world, and Chinese enterprises have actively participated in and led the formulation of some 5G international standards, playing an important role. Among them, Huawei, as an important technical contributor to the 5G standard, has announced the basic patent rate of the 5G standard. In March, Ding Jianxin, director of Huawei's Intellectual Property Department, announced that Huawei's patent license fee for a single mobile phone that follows the 5G standard is capped at $2.50.

At the same time, China's 5G terminals are constantly enriched. According to data from the Chinese Academy of Information and Communications Technology, from January to November this year, China's 5G mobile phones shipped a total of 239 million units, an increase of 65.3% year-on-year.

Xie Cun said that during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, China will build the world's largest 5G independent networking network, strive to have 26 5G base stations per 10,000 people, and achieve comprehensive coverage of cities and towns, basic coverage of administrative villages, and in-depth coverage of key application scenarios, of which the 5G access rate of administrative villages is expected to reach 80%.

"By 2025, China's 5G base stations will reach more than 3.6 million, giving priority to completing 5G network coverage in key areas." And increase the promotion and application of new technologies, on the one hand, timely carry out 5G millimeter wave network construction, on the other hand, for the industry application needs, promote the 5G industry virtual private network construction model, operation services, technical solutions innovation and maturity. Peng Jian, deputy director of the Radio Management Research Institute of the China Electronics Information Industry Development Research Institute, said.

5G applications set sail

In Jingdong's 5G intelligent logistics park, unmanned heavy trucks, unmanned light trucks, unmanned inspection robots and other automatic remote scheduling, vehicle online reservation, no sense of entering the park and the realization of automatic path guidance and intelligent scheduling of the station, face recognition system for park, warehouse, sorting multi-level employee permission control, AR (augmented reality) glasses to help operators automatically identify goods and combine visual instructions to assist operations.

At the Youngor factory in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, China Unicom's 5G-enabled MES system issued instructions, the fabric was "queued" one by one in the flow workshop, the cut fabric automatically entered the sewing process, and the sewn tops could also be accurately matched with the pants, completing the "transformation" from cutting to garment.

5G applications are accelerating into thousands of industries and becoming an important engine for promoting the digitalization, networking and intelligent transformation of the economy and society.

According to statistics, there are currently more than 10,000 cases of 5G application innovation in the country, covering 22 important industries of the national economy. "5G + Industrial Internet" has taken the lead in ten key industries such as mining, steel, electric power, petrochemical and chemical industry, forming 20 typical application scenarios such as remote equipment control, machine vision quality inspection, and production energy efficiency control.

Among them, the application scenarios of vertical industries such as industrial manufacturing, mining, and ports have accelerated the scale of landing, and have expanded from the initial production auxiliary business to core businesses such as equipment control and quality control, which is a relatively mature area of the current 5G application scheme.

5G applications in education, medical care, information consumption and other fields are also accelerating. A number of typical applications and benchmarking projects such as 5G aerial classrooms, 5G virtual laboratories, 5G cloud examination rooms, and 5G smart campuses have emerged, accumulating experience for the pilot application of 5G in smart education; more than 600 top three hospitals across the country have carried out 5G+ emergency first aid, remote diagnosis, health management and other applications; 5G applications such as AR tour guides, 4K/8K live broadcasts, and immersive teaching have greatly improved the consumer experience in the field of information consumption such as game entertainment, event live broadcasting, and residential services.

Xie Cun said that during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, it will focus on promoting 5G applications in 15 industries for the three major areas of information consumption, real economy and people's livelihood services, create a new ecology of deep integration, achieve double breakthroughs in the depth and breadth of 5G applications in key areas, build a dual pillar of technology industry and standard system, and gradually form a development situation of 5G application "sailing away".

The potential for steady growth is enormous

"As an important component of new infrastructure, 5G can play a direct role in stabilizing investment by laying out a number of new 5G infrastructure projects, and drive the coordinated and steady development of upstream and downstream enterprises in the 5G industry chain." More importantly, digital technology represented by 5G is an important engine for the digital transformation of economy and society, and has great potential in promoting consumption, helping upgrades, and cultivating new momentum for economic development. Peng Jian said.

According to data released by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, the three basic telecom operators plan 5G capital expenditures totaling 184.7 billion yuan in 2021, an increase of 5.1% over 2020. Ding Yun, managing director of Huawei and president of operator BG, said that in countries and regions with rapid 5G development, operators who have invested heavily in 5G have achieved remarkable business returns. At present, the penetration rate of 5G users in China, South Korea, Kuwait and other countries has crossed the critical point of 20%, and operators have entered a new pattern of spiral development of user growth, business returns, and network construction.

The China Academy of Information and Communications Technology expects that in 2021, 5G will directly drive the total economic output of 1.3 trillion yuan, directly drive the economic added value of about 300 billion yuan, indirectly drive the total output of about 3.38 trillion yuan, and indirectly drive the economic added value of about 1.23 trillion yuan, an increase of 33%, 39%, 31% and 31% respectively over 2020.

5G construction has greater market potential and investment space in vertical industries. "With the continuous evolution of 5G standards, the continuous improvement of 5G networks, and the continuous enrichment of 5G products, the enabling role of 5G in vertical industries such as manufacturing, transportation, logistics, ports, mining, power, oil and gas, and agriculture has become increasingly prominent, which will help vertical industries accelerate digital transformation and promote industry cost reduction and efficiency." Peng Jian said.

From the perspective of driving digital transformation, how to promote the next development of 5G?

Xiao Yaqing, minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said that the construction of 5G and Gigabit optical networks will be carried out in a sound and orderly manner, accelerate the large-scale construction of virtual private networks in the 5G industry, and lay a solid foundation for network facilities for digital transformation. Promote the large-scale development of 5G applications, focus on key industries such as manufacturing, mining, electric power, ports, and medical care, dig deep into the typical application scenarios of "5G + industrial Internet" production line and workshop level, and create a number of 5G fully connected factory benchmarks. (Economic Daily reporter Huang Xin)