Compared with previous generations of mobile networks, the capabilities of 5G networks have improved by leaps and bounds. In addition to bringing more extreme experience and greater capacity, 5G will also open the era of the Internet of Things and penetrate into various industries. Statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology show that there are currently more than 10,000 5G application innovation cases in the country, covering 22 important industries of the national economy. Facing the three major areas of information consumption, real economy and people's livelihood services, during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, 5G applications in 15 industries are becoming the focus of promotion of relevant ministries and local governments.
However, in the promotion of thousands of industries, 5G applications also face many pain points and difficulties, which are difficult to achieve overnight. This article will focus on the development trend and strategy of 5G application scale, with a view to promoting the deep integration of 5G and various industries, accelerating the application scale of 5G industry, and fully exerting the value of 5G empowerment.
1
5G application development status in 2021
and the challenges
The "government" and the "effective market" have cooperated organically to initially form a joint force to promote the development of 5G applications
The top-level design of 5G has been gradually improved, pointing out the direction for application development. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has thoroughly implemented the decision-making and deployment of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, increased the construction of 5G networks and Gigabit optical networks, and enriched application scenarios. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, together with the Central Cyberspace Administration of China, the National Development and Reform Commission and nine other departments, issued the "5G Application "Sail" Action Plan (2021-2023)", which clarifies the development direction of 5G applications in key industries in the next three years from the three aspects of consumer-facing (to C), industry-oriented (to B) and government-oriented (to G), and vigorously promotes 5G to empower thousands of industries. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has successively prepared and issued the "Notice on Promoting the Accelerated Development of 5G", the "Double Gigabit" Network Coordinated Development Action Plan (2021-2023) and the "Notice of the General Office of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Printing and Distributing the "5G + Industrial Internet" 512 Project Promotion Plan", strengthening policy guidance and support from network construction and application scenarios, and guiding all parties to work together to promote the development of 5G applications.
Governments across the country actively release policy dividends. According to the statistics of the Chinese Academy of Information and Communications Technology, more than 320 5G-related policies have been issued by various provinces and cities across the country, and the development direction and goals of the 5G industry and key applications have been clarified according to local conditions and combined with the characteristics of local economic industries.
In addition, the cooperation between the 5G industry chain is getting closer and closer. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has held four consecutive "Bloom Cup" 5G application solicitation competitions, with a total of more than 20,000 projects collected in four years, with 17,000 participating companies, which greatly stimulated the enthusiasm for 5G application innovation. By hosting IMT-2020 (5G) Conference, China International Information and Communication Exhibition and other activities, relying on 5G application industry squares and other industry organizations, China has built a "government-industry-university-research-use" exchange platform, smoothed the docking channels of industry and finance, promoted the deep integration of the 5G industry chain, innovation chain, capital chain and talent chain, and created an industrial environment for win-win cooperation.
The foundation for 5G development is solid, and the application empowerment has achieved remarkable results
Network construction and user development run out of "China speed". According to the characteristics of industry development, 5G network construction adheres to the principle of moderate advancement, showing a leading edge in the system. By the end of October 2021, more than 1.291 million 5G base stations have been built and opened nationwide, covering all prefecture-level cities and urban areas in the country, more than 97% of county towns and urban areas and 50% of townships and towns. At present, more than 2,300 virtual private networks in the 5G industry have been built in key areas such as industry, ports and hospitals, accelerating the formation of a 5G network system that meets the needs of the industry. The 5G user group has become a scale, and the types of terminal devices have gradually enriched. By the end of October 2021, the number of 5G terminal connections in China reached 471 million, accounting for more than 80% of the world. There are 603 domestic 5G terminals, including 452 mobile phones and 151 non-mobile terminals. Non-mobile application scenarios cover industrial, transportation, medical and other fields.
5G converged applications are implemented from "1" to "10". In terms of personal applications, leading enterprises in the industry actively explore 5G personal innovative applications, and have layouts in the fields of ultra-high-definition video, cloud games, AR/VR and so on. In terms of industry applications, basic telecommunications enterprises and vertical industry enterprises jointly explore 5G application pilots, and gradually select 10 key scenarios such as collaborative research and development design, remote equipment control, etc., and have initially had the conditions for scale replication in electronic equipment manufacturing, steel, mining, power and other industries. According to the statistics of the fourth "Bloom Cup" Organizing Committee, there have been more than 12,000 cases of 5G application innovation in China, and the technical and scenario verification of 5G applications in key industries has been preliminarily completed, forming a number of typical application scenarios with commercial value, covering 15 in 20 categories of the national economy, covering 39 in 97 categories, and the 5G empowerment effect has gradually emerged.
5G applications are still in the early stages of development, and deep integration with the industry still faces challenges
With the continuous deepening of the integration and application of 5G and thousands of industries, the key industries and typical application scenarios have gradually become clear. However, there is still a certain gap with the large-scale development of 5G applications, and there are still outstanding problems and difficulties in terms of integration depth, industrial supply, integration standards and content supply.
First, the depth of integration of 5G technology and application is insufficient. The integration of 5G technology and the existing business of the industry is still in its infancy, and the bearing of the core business of the industry has not yet been realized. At present, 5G technology is mainly used in auxiliary production business and information management business, and the production control core business of most industry enterprises is still carried by the traditional network, and it is urgent to carry out integrated technological innovation and experimental verification to form a deep integration of 5G technology and industry business.
Second, the supply capacity of 5G and converged applications is insufficient. The industry's new business puts forward higher requirements for 5G technology, and it needs to continue to evolve to meet the load-bearing needs of converged applications. At the same time, the content supply of 5G for personal applications needs to be enhanced. At present, the content production link is relatively weak, the technical threshold of content production is high, and there are pain points such as complex production and expensive equipment.
Third, there is a lack of standards for the integration and application of 5G and the industry. Cross-departmental, cross-industry, cross-field integration of application standards has not yet been formed, and it is urgent to carry out the construction of 5G industry application standard system and related policy measures to accelerate the formulation of fusion application standards.
2
5G application development trend in 2022
Personal application trends
5G personal applications will go through 3 stages of development. According to the current development status of terminals, content and other supporting industries in the consumer market, China's 5G personal applications will experience the "three-step" of experience optimization innovation, interactive application innovation, and new terminal innovation. The first is the experience optimization and innovation stage, which is aimed at applications that have developed more mature on the basis of 4G, such as video applications, etc., and uses 5G network features to upgrade technology or optimize services to improve the user experience. The second is the interactive application innovation stage, which is based on the current mainstream smart phones, through innovative application models, to meet the interactive needs of users and application content, and to provide an "immersive" experience. The third is the new terminal innovation stage, with the gradual maturity of new terminal technologies such as AR/VR and the increase in penetration rate, the innovative application of new terminals based on 5G + will appear on a large scale, revolutionizing the existing human-computer interaction mode.
China's 5G personal applications are actively exploring interactive application innovation models. At present, the basic conditions of China's 5G network, users, terminals and so on are relatively complete, and the industry leaders actively promote experience optimization and innovation, and explore and try interactive application innovation. Cloud video is the main product form of mass information consumption, with the main goal of optimizing user experience and improving production efficiency, such as China Telecom Tianyi ultra-high-definition application makes full use of the high bandwidth characteristics of 5G networks to provide 5Mbit/s~25Mbit/s code streaming services, which is more than 50% higher than the peak of 4G network code streams, and the cumulative registered users reach 65.2 million. As a new direction for the evolution of next-generation games, cloud games use the low latency characteristics of 5G networks to provide the same control experience as game consoles, which will promote the reconstruction and upgrading of the game industry and large-scale growth, and gradually form a new format model and development trend. In addition, industry companies are actively tapping the potential of 5G networks, exploring rich XR product forms, providing higher quality movie viewing and game services, and improving the sense of user experience and acquisition. Overall, 5G personal applications will take business model innovation as the starting point in the short term, focus on the development of new interactive experience applications, continue to promote the development of XR-based immersive experience applications in the long term, and gradually promote personal applications in stages.
5G personal applications will achieve breakthroughs in batches. It is expected that in the next 1 to 2 years, based on 5G networks, the current development of more mature long/short video, network live broadcast and other video applications, will achieve higher clarity and fluency, greatly optimize the user experience. Taking large-scale events such as the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and the Winter Paralympic Games as an opportunity, basic telecom operators, Internet companies, etc. are expected to further promote the development of interactive applications, and typical 5G applications such as cloud broadcasting, smart venues, panoramic 360° live broadcasting, and VR viewing will achieve more scene breakthroughs to meet the interaction needs between users and content, and provide users with an "immersive" interactive experience. At the same time, with the gradual maturity of new terminal technologies such as AR/VR, innovative applications based on new terminals such as 5G+AR/VR will appear after 2024 to provide users with an immersive experience.
Industry application trends
The development of 5G applications cannot be achieved overnight, and it is necessary to follow the objective law of gradual introduction of technology, standards and industries, and continue to develop gradually. From the perspective of 5G technology application to various industries, it is necessary to follow the law of commercialization and industrialization, and the phase characteristics will be more obvious, combined with the evolution of 5G technology and the industrialization of new technologies, which can be divided into 4 stages. First, in the warm-up stage, after the 5G technology basic version R15 standard is frozen, the 5G technology completes research and development, and mainly based on enhanced mobile broadband and some low-latency scenarios to carry out technical verification. Second, in the initial stage, the 5G industry and various industries entered the run-in period, and the industry leaders began to cooperate with the 5G industry in depth, especially in combination with the R16 standard in low latency and positioning scenarios to jointly explore 5G application scenarios and product needs, adapt to a wide range of scenarios, screen out a number of products and solutions with commercial value, and start small-scale pilots. The prototype of the 5G fusion application industry chain has emerged, and the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain have begun to cooperate initially. Third, in the growth stage, the solutions and products applied in the 5G industry continue to run into various industries, further optimize, and products begin to be listed in small batches. At the same time, with the gradual evolution of 5G technical standards, 5G product forms are more abundant, and solutions are fully adapted in the industry, and the application business model is gradually clear. Fourth, in the stage of scale development, 5G fusion applications can be applied on a large scale in the industry, related products can achieve large-scale mass production, and the scope of application has spread from leading enterprises to small and medium-sized enterprises, which has highlighted the enabling effect on key industries.
In the next 1 to 2 years, the integration and application of various industries will gradually move towards the next stage. From the "Bloom Cup", it can be seen that China's 5G application has carried out a lot of exploration, resulting in many excellent pilot demonstration projects, empowering, empowering, wisdom and assigning value to thousands of industries. Due to the uneven informatization foundation of various industries and the different development paths, the development pace of 5G industry applications is fast and slow. Compared with the overall development law of 5G applications, at present, China's rapidly developing leading industries (such as industrial manufacturing, electric power, medical treatment, etc.) have entered a growth stage, and 5G application products and solutions continue to adapt and run-in with various industries and business exploration. In the fields of integrated media and smart cities, the industry demand is gradually becoming clear, and it is expected to become the next batch of industries that have entered the growth stage. Industries with development potential, such as culture and tourism and transportation, are following suit, exploring the needs of industry users, clarifying application scenarios, developing products and forming solutions, and adapting scenarios. With the evolution of 5G standards and the development of industrialization, the "spillover effect" of technology displayed by 5G will far exceed the previous generations of mobile communication technology, which will give birth to more application scenarios and business models, through the resource connection of the whole industry chain and the whole value chain, drive the flow of information with data flow, promote the reorganization of elements such as capital flow, material flow, talent flow, and technology flow, drive business model and organizational form change, reshape the industrial development model, and inject vitality into the development of digital industrialization.
With the in-depth promotion of 5G applications, the development of industry applications has a multiplier effect. More and more industrial forces have gathered to explore the development of supporting products for 5G applications, and the development of virtual reality terminals, industry modules and terminals, industry platforms and solutions will appear new trends. It is estimated that every unit invested in China's 5G industry will drive 6 units of economic output, and the "spillover effect" is significant, promoting the quality change, efficiency change and power change of industrial development. Judging from the types of application subjects for the "Bloom Cup" project in 2021, the number of solution providers participating in the project has increased significantly compared with previous years, accounting for more than 20%, which shows that the ability of solution providers to lead 5G application innovation has been continuously enhanced. The continuous increase in the participation of solution providers reflects the active investment of all parties in the industry chain in promoting 5G applications, and the ability of relevant enterprises to incubate 5G application solutions is more perfect, which can better meet the needs of industry application units, but at present, there is still a gap between their solution supply capabilities and traditional operating enterprises. The original industry solution providers are often smaller, can adopt a variety of flexible transaction models to innovate and improve business models, and are more flexible and diverse than operators and leading enterprises in the industry. Emerging end-to-end solution providers can provide industry users with integrated solutions that integrate "IT+CT+OT" and will shine in the 5G era.
3
Promote the large-scale development of 5G applications
Policy recommendations
The level of digitalization in China's industry is uneven, the demand is different, and the personalization is more prominent. It is necessary to base on China's national conditions and rely on the "sail" action plan for 5G applications to make sustained efforts to promote the large-scale development of 5G applications.
Key industries are classified and implemented, and key applications are introduced in cascade
The first is to implement the "classification and implementation of policies for key industries". Focus on exploring key areas, promote the formation of driving effects in key industries, not only continue to promote and set benchmarks in leading industries such as manufacturing, mining, electric power, and medical care; but also carry out technology and scenario adaptation in potential industries such as smart cities, cultural tourism, water conservancy, transportation, and areas to be tapped, and carry out project pilot demonstrations; we should also continue to incubate and cultivate application scenarios in agriculture, education and waiting to cultivate industries, and introduce low-cost, easy-to-deploy, and low-difficulty solutions. The second is to implement the "key application ladder import". 5G will continue to be deeply integrated with various industries, forming a cascade landing path: from network replacement applications, to technology integration applications, and then to integrated and transformed applications. With the continuous improvement of the maturity of 5G applications, 5G applications will show a spiraling development model. 5G must be closely integrated with industry-specific technology, knowledge, and experience, and promote large-scale replication and application of key industries in a point-by-point and in-depth manner. Unite all parties in the industry, from shallow to deep, step by step, from the basic links such as production monitoring, remote service, and smart logistics to the key links such as digital research and development and precise control, and mature a batch, promote a batch, and copy a batch.
Continue to strengthen the layout of scientific and technological research and development, and improve the supply capacity of 5G application products
The first is to increase investment in 5G and 6G key technologies and product research and development, and continue to lead. Promote the research and development of 5G enhancement and 6G key technology industries, strengthen the research of 5G chips, core devices and basic software and hardware, promote the localization of 5G chip design tools and chip manufacturing, consolidate the foundation of innovation, and smooth industrial innovation channels. The second is to further promote the innovation and development of the 5G industry and promote the application of the application. Accelerate the research and development and industrialization of lightweight 5G chip modules, and improve the cost performance of industry terminal modules. Form a virtual private network industry template for the 5G industry in key industries such as steel, mining, and electric power, and carry out industry-oriented network and platform product development.
Build a 5G application industry ecosystem and shape an application innovation environment
The first is to carry out the construction of 5G application innovation carriers. With leading enterprises and scientific research units as the main body, build a number of 5G-oriented integration application innovation centers and 5G application laboratories; encourage leading enterprises and scientific research institutions to build common technology platforms for key industries to solve technical bottlenecks that restrict the replication and promotion of industry applications. The second is to strengthen the construction of public service platforms. Create a supply and demand docking platform, strengthen the coordination of supply and demand and resource sharing of innovation elements, improve the service system of 5G application innovation enterprises, and encourage more market players to enter the field of 5G application innovation and entrepreneurship; accelerate the construction of "double creation" carriers such as 5G application incubators and co-creation spaces, improve the operation mode of innovation carriers, and increase support for small and medium-sized enterprises. The third is to promote the construction of a standardized cooperation platform. Establish and improve the cooperation mechanism of the 5G Application Standardization Organization, strengthen the overall coordination of cross-departmental, cross-industry, and cross-field standard systems and important standards; establish an international standard working group for 5G fusion applications to accelerate the formulation and implementation of fusion standards; promote the construction of a fusion standard system, and accelerate the formulation and promotion of common standards and key technical standards for digital infrastructure.
Author of this article
Pan Feng
Deputy Director of Radio Research Center, China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, Senior Engineer
Mainly engaged in broadband wireless mobile communication technology
Strategic planning, policy research, network planning
Evaluation optimization, industrial development and other work.
Liu Jiawei
Engineer, Radio Research Center, China Academy of Information and Communications Technology
Mainly engaged in 5G market, industry and application
Related technical research and standardization work.
End
Author: China Academy of Information and Communications Technology
Radio Research Center Pan Feng Liu Jiawei
Editor-in-Charge/Layout: Fan Fan
Review: Shen Qing
Producer: Liu Qicheng
I knew you were "watching"