(Reporter Tang Gang) The years do not live, and the seasons are like a stream. The new year 5G construction and investment plan will be released soon. According to the relevant data of the financial reports of the three major operators, since 2019,
5G investment has surged higher and higher with the new infrastructure. It is about 34.2 billion yuan in 2019 (RMB), 175.7 billion yuan in 2020, and 180.4 billion yuan in 2021 (planned).
How much do you know about 5G investment this year? How can operators promote 5G to move towards a deeper and lower-carbon goal in accordance with the requirements of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to carry out 5G construction in a sound and orderly manner and the green development of the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments?
China Telecom and China Unicom recently launched a self-developed shared blockchain scheduling platform to "preemptively answer".
This year's 5G construction requires a sound and orderly + green and low-carbon
According to the latest data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, as of the end of November 2021, China has built more than 1.39 million 5G base stations, accounting for more than 70% of the world's total. Among them, China Telecom and China Unicom jointly built and shared more than 630,000 5G base stations.
For the construction of information and communication in 2022, Han Xia, chief engineer of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said at the 2022 CHINA ACADEMY ICT in-depth observation report meeting that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has clarified the division of tasks and the goal of system layout of new infrastructure construction. It is estimated that by the end of 2022, China's 5G base stations will exceed 2 million, and the number of 5G terminal connections will reach 600 million. It can be seen that the construction target of 5G base stations this year may still be 600,000.
The National Development and Reform Commission, the Central Cyberspace Administration, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the National Energy Administration have jointly studied and formulated the "Implementation Plan for Implementing the Carbon Peak Carbon Neutrality Target Requirements and Promoting the Green and High-quality Development of New Infrastructure such as Data Centers and 5G", which proposes to increase the energy efficiency of 5G base stations by more than 20% by 2025. Therefore, this year's 5G construction must not only ensure a sound and orderly manner, but also ensure green and low-carbon.
Co-construction and sharing release innovation dividends
In the past 2021, the three major operators have completed the goal of adding 600,000 new 5G base stations set by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology ahead of schedule. According to the plan, the total investment in 5G construction is 184.7 billion yuan. Among them, China Mobile is 110 billion, and China Telecom and China Unicom plan to 39.7 billion and 35 billion respectively.
5G construction continues to be high investment. According to the statistics related to the financial reports of the three major operators, since 2019, the 5G construction investment of the three major operators has exceeded 390 billion. China Mobile mentioned that more than 650,000 5G base stations have been built; China Radio and Television said that it has built and shared 200,000 700MHz base stations with China Mobile.
It is worth noting that since China Radio and Television did not invest in the joint construction of the 700MHz 5G network in accordance with the original co-construction and sharing agreement 1:1, according to the supplementary agreement signed by the two sides last September, China Mobile alone bore all the construction costs. This also makes the same so-called "co-construction and sharing", China Mobile's 5G expenditure exceeds the sum of China Telecom and China Unicom, but the number of base stations is comparable.
Co-construction and sharing can indeed greatly reduce the cost of 5G construction and accelerate the speed of 5G promotion. Since China Telecom and China Unicom signed a 5G network co-construction and sharing cooperation agreement in 2019, as of October 2021, commercial deployment has co-built and shared more than 600,000 5G base stations, accounting for more than 40% of the number of 5G base stations built in the world, synchronously promoting 4G access network sharing, saving more than 210 billion yuan in network construction investment, saving 20 billion yuan in network operating costs, saving more than 10 billion kWh of electricity, and reducing carbon emissions by 6 million tons, driving the upstream and downstream industry chains and leading the global 5G development. It has promoted the high-quality, healthy and green development of the 5G industry.
This year, if the scale of 5G base station construction remains unchanged and the four major operators continue to adopt co-construction and sharing initiatives, their respective 5G expenditures will remain at the same scale as in 2021.
Deepening co-construction and sharing will help operators improve profitability
Recently, China Telecom and China Unicom jointly released the independently developed co-construction and sharing blockchain scheduling platform, which not only means a breakthrough in key technologies for 5G co-construction and sharing, but also is of great significance for operators to deepen co-construction and sharing in 2022.
China Telecom and China Unicom took the lead in jointly building a 5G access network nationwide, carrying out the co-construction and sharing of the whole life cycle of 5G, and realizing one physical network and two logical networks. At present, the two sides have not only built the world's first and largest 5G independent networking (SA) to build and share the network, realizing large-scale industrial applications, but also jointly broke through many technical problems in the joint industrial chain and obtained nearly 500 authorized invention patents. The project team also led the formulation of 12 international standards and 8 industry standards.
Ke Ruiwen, chairman of China Telecom, proposed at the 2021 World 5G Conference to further promote the co-construction and sharing of 4G/5G base stations and 5G low-frequency sharing, further summarize the cooperation experience of telecom and Unicom, promote a wider range of co-construction and sharing, and narrow the gap between urban and rural areas in 5G development.
The tide level is wide on both sides, and the wind is hanging in the sails. Faced with huge 5G investment and carbon reduction and energy saving goals, co-construction and sharing have been verified and will continue to be a practical method. At present, the three major operators gather in the A-share market to jointly build and share network infrastructure, and promote the co-construction and sharing in depth, which is believed to play a huge role in the return and improvement of operators' market value.