The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released a "2021 Communications Industry Statistical Communiqué", which shows that 5G mobile phone users reached 355 million households, which is less than 100 million less than the cumulative sales of 5G mobile phones, compared with 730 million 5G package users.
According to the data disclosed by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the number of mobile phone users in China has reached 1.643 billion households, of which 4G mobile phone users have reached 1.069 billion, and the 4G penetration rate has reached 65%, showing that most domestic consumers have accepted 4G, after all, 4G can get a faster Internet experience.
Surprisingly, the number of 5G mobile phone users is much less than before, and the remarks of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology pointed out that based on the actual situation, the statistical caliber of 5G users has changed, and the "number of 5G mobile phone users" refers to the network users who have usage information in the communication billing system at the end of the reporting period and occupy 5G network resources. The previous "number of 5G mobile phone terminal connections" refers to the 5G mobile phone end users who connected to the mobile communication network (3G/4G/5G) during the reporting period.
Obviously, today's "5G mobile phone users" is more realistic, according to the new definition should refer to users who have 5G mobile phones and use 5G networks.
In June 2019, China issued 5G licenses to the three major operators, after the commercialization of 5G, 5G technology was rapidly upgraded, first of all, there was a debate on 5G SA and NSA networking, and finally 5G SA prevailed, and the three major operators began to build 5G networks with 5G SA from the beginning of 2020, which is conducive to better playing the advantages of 5G technology.
Subsequently, operators found that due to the high-frequency band of 5G, the coverage of 5G base stations was too small, and if the 5G network covering the whole country was built with high-frequency bands, it would cost a huge investment; in operation, it was also found that the power consumption of 5G base stations was too large, and the huge electricity costs caused operators to be unbearable, and they had to close 5G base stations during idle hours to save electricity costs.
By 2021, China Mobile and China Radio and Television will cooperate to build a 700MHz 5G network, with the help of the golden band 700MHz coverage advantage, the industry expects that the 480,000 700MHz 5G base stations jointly built by China Mobile and China Radio and Television may be enough to cover rural areas across the country, and the construction of 700MHz 5G networks will begin in mid-2021, and the construction task is expected to be completed by the end of this year.
The rapid upgrade of 5G technology has confused users in choosing 5G mobile phones, and the dispute between 5G SA and NSA has led to about 10 million 5G mobile phones in 2019 being unusable in the later 5G SA network; the introduction of 700MHz 5G technology has made the original 5G mobile phone users unable to enjoy the coverage advantages of 5G in this frequency band, which once led to a decline in 5G mobile phone sales before September 2021, and then all 5G mobile phones after October 2021 had to support 700MHz 5G has triggered a small upsurge in 5G mobile phone sales.
The result of the rapid upgrade of technology is that although the number of 5G package users by 2021 has reached 730 million, the cumulative sales of 5G mobile phones are only about 460 million, and the actual 5G mobile phone users using 5G mobile phones and 5G networks are only about 355 million. The reason why 5G real users have less cumulative sales than 5G package users and 5G mobile phones is that some 5G mobile phone users believe that 5G coverage is not ideal, power consumption is large, etc. and turn off 5G functions in daily use.
Perhaps with the completion of the 700MHz 5G network of China Mobile and China Radio and Television, the network coverage of 5G will be greatly improved, and the popularity of 5G services will enter a new stage, after all, 5G technology is still much better than 4G, which can bring a more enjoyable Internet experience.