What does it mean for China Telecom's 5G news to be officially commercialized

On January 25, 2022, China Telecom announced the official commercial use of 5G news, marking a new stage in the development of China Telecom's 5G news. In 2021, China Mobile and China Unicom have launched 5G messaging trial commercialization, and the formal addition of China Telecom has realized the interconnection of the 5G messaging platforms of the three major operators to a certain extent, laying a solid foundation for the large-scale development of 5G messaging.

Lived up to expectations

5G news development has entered a new stage

According to the "2021 Communications Industry Statistical Bulletin", the national mobile SMS service volume in 2021 will decrease by 1% compared with the previous year, and the growth rate of mobile SMS service volume will drop from 15.4% in the previous year to 7.6%. In fact, with the gradual popularization of the Internet, the communication role of mobile SMS services has gradually been weakened. Especially in the 5G era, text messages are often remembered when verification codes are needed.

The emergence of 5G messaging has continued and upgraded the mobile SMS service to a certain extent. Different from SMS can only send text, 5G messaging can realize SMS as an application, SMS as a service, not only support text, pictures, videos, emoticons, location, search, contacts and other common information functions, but also through the software entrance to directly complete the search discovery, online consultation, commodity purchase, online payment and other more diversified services, can achieve the interactive closed loop of the mobile Internet ecology, to create a more excellent experience for users.

As the first "killer" application in the 5G era, 5G news is highly expected, and many companies have begun to lay out in the 5G news track a few years ago. On April 8, 2020, the three major operators jointly held an online conference to jointly release the "5G News White Paper", which expounded the core concept of 5G news, clarified the relevant business functions and technical requirements, put forward the concept of 5G news ecosystem construction, and opened a new chapter for 5G news services. In March 2021, the China Communications Enterprise Association and the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology jointly initiated the establishment of the 5G Message Working Group, which is committed to building a communication platform, docking service needs, formulating group standards, carrying out capability certification, and promoting and rapid development of news.

In November 2021, China Mobile opened 5G news to the outside world for trial commercial use. China Unicom also launched a nationwide trial commercial launch of 5G messaging in November 2021. Up to now, the three operators have already met the commercial conditions for 5G news. "5G news will surely become a new driving force to promote the upgrading and high-quality development of the digital economy industry in the whole society." Tang Ke, deputy general manager of China Telecom, said.

The dust settles on billing standards

5G news has entered substantial development

"At present, for individual users, the reception is free, and the sending is the same as the current SMS charging rules. For enterprise customers, this is assigned according to the type of 5G message sent and used, but users receive and reply to enterprise messages for free. Zhang Xiaojun, deputy general manager of China Telecom's marketing department, introduced at the official commercial conference of China Telecom's 5G news, "In order to promote the new charm of user experience 5G messaging business, China Telecom will also provide free experience packages for a certain period of time." Welcome to open and experience China Telecom's 5G messaging services. ”

Different from the trial commercial use of China Mobile and China Unicom, the official commercial 5G news of China Telecom clarified more business details. According to Zhang Xiaojun, China Telecom's 5G news can be divided into two categories: personal 5G news and industry 5G news from the specific business form.

For individual users, 5G messages do not need to download any APP, and provide a unified personal service entrance in a native way of the terminal, which is simpler, faster, safer and more convenient to use. In the future, China Telecom will provide 5G message service packages, gradually open 5G message services to users, actively explore a variety of billing methods and models, encourage and guide individual users to use 5G messages, cultivate the usage habits of 5G message users, further enrich the business form of 5G messages, and continue to improve the experience of terminal use.

For industry users, the scope of 5G messages is wider, the content is richer and safer, that is, the characteristics of openness, security and closed loop, which can provide rich service capabilities for industry users, and can realize application scenarios such as search applications, online business consulting, product purchase, payment, etc., which greatly reduces the cost of customer acquisition for enterprises, enriches social interaction means, and makes positive contributions to the digitization of thousands of industries.

At present, the 5G message series standards such as "5G News Overall Technical Requirements", "5G Message Terminal Technical Requirements", "5G Message Security Requirements" and so on have been basically formulated, and the 5G message applications that have been developed are mainly concentrated in the fields of government affairs, media, cultural tourism and emergency services. For example, As the only official communication service partner of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Winter Paralympic Games, China Unicom has launched an ice and snow-themed 5G message Winter Olympics application, which can help users easily watch the live broadcast of the Winter Olympic games, capture the wonderful moments of the Winter Olympic Games, and exchange Winter Olympic souvenirs and Winter Olympic peripheral goods, providing more new options for popularizing ice and snow sports and meeting the public to go to the ice and snow covenant. The country's first digital wisdom rural 5G news platform is also promoted by China Mobile in Hubei, providing users with the latest beneficial agricultural policies, epidemic dynamics, knowledge science, rural style and other information, and tens of millions of users have received 5G information on rural services.

All parties in the industry are working together

The road to 5G news development is long and difficult

Although the current 5G news development has entered a new stage, the future road also requires the coordination of all parties in the industry. How to go from pilot demonstration to scale promotion to large-scale application, how to break through the barriers of terminal interconnection and other issues need to be solved urgently. Li Dan, deputy head of the 5G message working group, told reporters that in view of the large-scale coverage of 5G message terminals, it is recommended that the three basic operators form a synergy, the coverage progress is consistent, and the terminals that give priority to supporting 5G messages give certain policy support. At the same time, it is also recommended that terminal manufacturers improve their positions, fully support 5G messages in the new models, jointly make the cake bigger, and solve the bottlenecks and key problems that restrict terminal support in the development.

China Telecom said it will actively cooperate with terminal partners to further expand the coverage of 5G message terminals. In the future, the models of private brands (such as Tianyi-1, Mai Mang 10, etc.) will accelerate the support of 5G messaging, promote the scale of the 5G messaging industry, and lay a good foundation for terminal cooperation for the subsequent development of 5G messaging scale.

Despite the many challenges, the industry remains confident about the development of 5G news. With the rapid development of 5G technology, 5G news is expected to become the main scene service entrance and carrier of users, and become the first "killer" application of 5G. At the official commercial conference of China Telecom 5G news, Chen Jiachun, a first-level inspector of the Department of Information and Communication Development of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, put forward several suggestions for the development of 5G news: First, look at the problem from the perspective of development and face up to the challenges encountered at present. Taking 5G news as an opportunity for digital transformation and upgrading, starting from the interests of the country and the masses, we will take the lead in breaking through inertial thinking and innovating application scenarios in public welfare fields such as government affairs, public services, and media publicity. The second is to actively explore practice and take pilot demonstration as a breakthrough. Verify the technical route in the test field, explore the business model, obtain user feedback, accumulate pilot experience, rely on the industrial chain collaboration platform such as the 5G news working group, further promote work collaboration, and ensure that the pilot demonstration achieves practical results. The third is to stimulate innovation and develop typical cases. Adhere to the tone of serving the real economy, increase the mining of vertical industry scenarios, continuously enrich the application field of 5G news, and continue to improve the user application experience. The fourth is to standardize development and actively summarize the valuable experience gained in the process of developing and standardizing the telecommunications industry in the early stage. In the early stage of the development of the 5G news industry, it is possible to simultaneously strengthen the construction of technical means, establish a system management system, and explore the establishment of a credit management model to ensure the healthy and long-term development of the 5G news industry.

End

This article was first published in Communication World, No. 3, 2022, Issue 889 in total

Author: Wang Yurong

Editor-in-Charge/Layout: Fan Fan

Review: Shen Qing

Producer: Liu Qicheng

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