"Now that we (operators) have participated in the construction of network power, smart society and information consumption, we call on the state and various industries to reposition our operators and play a greater role in us." In 2022, zhang Yunyong, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and secretary of the party committee and general manager of Yunnan Unicom, said in an interview with Nandu reporter that 5G is the "paving stone" for the development of the digital economy, the "ballast stone" for stabilizing employment supply, the "diamond" for improving governance efficiency, and the "touchstone" for revitalizing a scientific and technological power.
In addition, Zhang Yunyong also said that facing the huge market of digital transformation of the industry, all walks of life have put forward more urgent needs for computing power and networks, and the transformation of the next generation network represented by the computing power network has gradually become a hot spot for all parties in the industry. In the recently launched "East Counting West Calculation" project, operators mainly undertake the two major roles of "computing capacity" and "transportation capacity". Zhang Yunyong will also make proposals on how to establish a computing power network trading platform, realize the use of computing power, and how to gradually transition the data center to data-centric.
Public applications outside of 5G news are expected to increase this year
Recently, the State Council New Office held a press conference, and the relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology introduced that the mainland has built and opened more than 1.425 million 5G base stations, and the number of 5G mobile terminal connections has reached 520 million. Business revenue from the communications industry, software and information technology services increased by 8% and 17.7% respectively last year. At present, the mainland 5G network has covered all prefectures and cities in the country, all counties and urban areas, and 87% of townships and towns. This year, more than 600,000 new 5G base stations will be built, and at the same time, it is necessary to build on demand, optimize the layout, take the industry demand as the guide, further promote the demonstration of "5G + industrial Internet" application scenarios, carry out 5G + medical health, 5G + smart education pilots, and strengthen network coverage for key areas such as enterprise factories and industrial parks.
However, on the other side of the fiery development of 5G construction, it should not be ignored that 5G public applications are still relatively lacking, and even the 5G news that has been "launched" in 2020 is still not large-scale commercial - only China Telecom announced in January 2022 that it has entered the commercial stage.
In this regard, Zhang Yunyong told Nandu reporters that compared with industry applications, the categories of public applications are obviously insufficient. At present, 5G personal applications are still difficult to define and measure, quantitative 5G personal market development mainly relies on a single indicator of the number of 5G mobile phones, there is no obvious difference between the way of use and the overall experience and 4G, and the personal application that makes full use of 5G characteristics has not really been popularized, resulting in a more popular view that the prospect of 5G public applications is limited, and the current public's sense of acquisition of 5G applications is seriously insufficient.
Zhang Yunyong said that if 5G applications can not fully release the potential of the consumer Internet, the public 5G network upgrade power will be insufficient, a large network to serve the public and the industry vision will be difficult to achieve, which will exacerbate the 5G industry applications facing unlimited fragmentation of the demand scenario, thus forced to build more isolated 5G private networks, "so the 5G network may become a porter of traffic, it is difficult to play the 5G public and industry dual-line empowerment of differentiated service capabilities." ”
As for the question of when 5G news will be commercialized, Zhang Yunyong said that the technology has matured, and "the international norms and this industry norm are ready." China Unicom also built regional nodes in Nanjing and Guangdong as early as possible for trial operation. Now it has jointly recruited more than 100 landing enterprises with Telecom, such as meteorology, finance, and airline booking."
Zhang Yunyong, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and secretary of the party committee and general manager of Yunnan Unicom
However, the lack of terminal support capacity is one of the main reasons for the public application of 5G that has not yet been widely popularized, such as the 2021 "Bloom Cup" sponsored by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, in the 400 entries of the 5G news special competition, there are only 3 terminal models that can actually be used to display 5G news on the whole network. Zhang Yunyong told Nandu reporters, "Such as ZTE, Huawei, Samsung are very open, but there are also some terminal manufacturers who clearly oppose supporting 5G news." ”
However, in addition to 5G messages, Zhang Yunyong suggested speeding up the end-to-end 5G public application service system and promoting the support and implementation of 5G functional features and 5G applications on terminals. Incorporate the use of 5G messages, 5G enhanced calls, 5G network slicing, etc. into the 5G personal application measurement system, and make the above functions a mandatory choice for mobile phones to enter the network. At the same time, it also said that it should encourage the expansion of integrated 5G terminal categories for personal information consumption, such as the innovation of headset wearable devices such as AR and VR.
For the above applications, some operator insiders said that they have entered the pilot stage and are expected to be gradually promoted this year.
In addition, Zhang Yunyong also called for the allocation of relevant resources to 5G public applications under the condition that the existing governance system and market pattern remain unchanged. For example, 5G messages and enhanced call matching exclusive numbers are used to distinguish them from existing SMS and voice in terms of user cognition, usage mode, management mode, and regulatory means; telecom operators are encouraged to design product forms, application tariffs, and business models that match users and industry ecology in terms of product design and pricing.
Speeding up and reducing fees has made profits of 700 billion yuan, calling for high-quality development of the communications industry
Zhang Yunyong introduced that in the past two years, the telecom industry has taken a new round of digital information infrastructure construction represented by 5G as an opportunity to actively explore the high-quality development of the industry, and in response to the complex challenges of epidemic prevention and control and the "card neck" of the 5G industry chain in the periphery, it has quickly built a 5G network with the largest network scale and the largest user scale in the world through co-construction and sharing.
However, at present, operators are also encountering various problems. If the profitability of operators is now tested, Zhang Yunyong introduced that in the past five years, the average tariff of fixed broadband unit bandwidth and mobile network unit traffic in the mainland has dropped by more than 95%, and the cumulative profit of speeding up and reducing fees has exceeded 700 billion yuan. At present, the tariff level is already about half of the international average. The ARPU of mobile communication users in the mainland is only equivalent to 18% of the United States and 26.7% of South Korea.
There is also low-price competition between the three major operators in local areas, Zhang Yunyong for example, taking Tianjin as an example, at the beginning of the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan", Tianjin Telecom's industry-wide revenue was 15.5 billion yuan, during which the three enterprises fiercely competed in price, and by the end of the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan", the industry's revenue was only 14.4 billion yuan. In addition, the vicious price competition in the industry has spread to the industrial chain, the communication equipment manufacturer market only price collection, excessive competition has occurred repeatedly, the overall ecology of the communication industry supply chain has deteriorated, the quality of equipment is difficult to guarantee at low prices, and many manufacturers are in the dilemma of "no bidding, it is more difficult to bid below the cost".
Zhang Yunyong told Nandu reporters that the peak investment period of 5G is now at least 2 years, and the industry must maintain a high investment of 350 billion yuan per year, coupled with the rise in rigid operating costs such as water, electricity, and rent. Therefore, the high-quality development of the communication industry is already imminent.
Zhang Yunyong said that in addition to working together to play a "team competition" for 5G applications, accelerating the promotion of "model rooms" into "commercial houses" with market value, and jointly making 5G application value, it is necessary to resolutely implement the co-construction and sharing of 5G networks. "If the co-construction and sharing of 700MHz networks is not substantively promoted as soon as possible, it will cause at least 760,000 base stations to be repeatedly built in the short term, 836 billion yuan of investment waste, and a significant increase in network energy consumption and operating costs."
Zhang Yunyong revealed that at present, under the leadership of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, on the basis of the work teams that have been set up by four operators, including China Radio and Television, they have substantively and jointly carried out technical verification tests, promoted equipment support for 4 sharing, and effectively promoted the full sharing of 700M frequencies in remote areas such as rural areas and along highways and railways.
In addition, the talent reserve of the communication industry is also one of the foundations for promoting the development of the industry. Zhang Yunyong explained that at present, operators are more and more combined with all walks of life, and compound talents in the communication industry are becoming more and more precious. "In the past, we only paid attention to the talents of communication for a long time, and the talent reserves for computers, big data, artificial intelligence, including the underlying operating system database were insufficient, and they were not as systematic as the reserves of Internet companies." But in recent years, we have also attached great importance to it, both in terms of talent and organizational structure. It also calls for the establishment of systematic talent training, effectively guarantee the supply of transformation talents, accelerate the introduction and use of soul-oriented leading talents, accelerate the formation of core capabilities, and break through key core technologies. Adhere to the "open door to innovation, co-creation for win-win", and work together with all parties to carry out more in-depth collaborative innovation.
Written by: Nandu reporter Kong Xueshao Intern Cao Ziyi