5G accelerates the growth of the digital industry

Zhejiang Jinfei Intelligent Manufacturing Ferruge Co., Ltd. future factory uses 5G, visual recognition and other new generation information technology, a large number of industrial robots, production efficiency increased by 15%. Photo by Hu Xiaofei (Zhongjing Vision)

On the e-commerce platform, "5G + virtual reality" brings real consumption scenarios; in the factory workshop, "5G + industrial Internet" brings more intelligent flexible manufacturing; in tourist attractions, "5G + cultural tourism" brings a more convenient garden experience. At present, the new infrastructure represented by 5G is accelerating construction and integrating into thousands of industries, promoting the steady expansion of the scale of the digital industry.

By the end of March this year, nearly 1.56 million 5G base stations had been opened on the mainland, and the number of 5G mobile phone subscribers had reached 403 million. Luo Junjie, director of the Operation Monitoring and Coordination Bureau of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said that basic telecommunications enterprises will be guided to deploy 5G base station construction in advance, promote the formation of physical workload as soon as possible, and give full play to the role of investment pull.

Network accelerated coverage

"All key areas and hotspot areas in Xiong'an New Area have achieved full 5G coverage." Zhang Hui, director of The Xiong'an Branch of China Tower Hebei, told reporters that as of now, a total of more than 1,700 5G macro base station construction projects have been completed, achieving 100% co-construction and sharing, and 5G full coverage of key areas such as the main areas of the county, the Anxin Rongcheng connection line, and country parks has effectively promoted the integration and development of 5G and the industry, helping 5G networks and industry applications to lead the country.

In the first quarter, the construction of 5G base stations was steadily advancing, and the number of 5G users continued to increase. By the end of March, 134,000 new 5G base stations had been built, the number of 5G mobile phone subscribers had increased by 48.11 million, the supply capacity of information and communication services had continued to improve, and the construction of new infrastructure had been accelerated.

Zhao Zhiguo, director of the Information and Communication Administration bureau of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, revealed that infrastructure construction will be accelerated this year and effective investment will be guided. Steadily and orderly promote the construction of 5G and Gigabit optical networks, and deepen the co-construction and sharing of networks. Continue to improve the depth and breadth of network coverage, promote the completion of 600,000 5G base stations throughout the year, and the coverage capacity of Gigabit optical networks will exceed 400 million households.

"The speed of 5G construction in mainland China is very fast, and this year is still a high-input stage for 5G construction." Pan Helin, co-director and researcher of the Digital Economy and Financial Innovation Research Center of the International United Business School of Zhejiang University, said.

From the perspective of 5G investment, Yang Jie, chairman of China Mobile, said that 2020 to 2022 is the peak of 5G investment, and from next year, China Mobile's 5G investment will no longer grow and show a gradual downward trend.

It is understood that China Mobile expects 5G-related capital expenditure of about 110 billion yuan in 2022, and plans to open a total of 1.1 million 5G base stations by the end of 2022, of which 480,000 are 700 MHz base stations, achieving continuous coverage of cities, counties, urban areas, townships and towns across the country. China Telecom expects 5G-related capital expenditure of 34 billion yuan in 2022, and more than 990,000 5G base stations will be in use by the end of the year.

According to the data, in 2021, China Mobile's 5G-related investment totaled 114 billion yuan, with a total of more than 730,000 5G base stations, basically achieving continuous coverage of urban areas, counties and townships, good coverage of some key areas, developed rural areas and key property venues, serving 207 million 5G network customers, and ranking first in the world in terms of 5G network scale and customer scale. China Telecom completed a 5G investment of 38 billion yuan to promote the co-construction and sharing of China Unicom's network, with 690,000 5G base stations in use, and the 5G network covers all cities and counties in the country and some developed townships. China Unicom completed a 5G investment of 32.05 billion yuan.

The enabling role is prominent

From the consumer field to the industrial field, the enabling role of 5G has gradually become prominent, promoting the steady expansion of the scale of the digital industry.

Under the mine, in the electromechanical chamber more than 500 meters deep, the inspection robot is carrying out 360-degree video monitoring, audio acquisition, infrared thermal imaging and other work. On the mine, in the centralized control center, workers can monitor the underground gas concentration, temperature and humidity, coal mining and other data in real time on the electronic screen through computer operation, and the comprehensive mining, excavation, transportation and other scenarios are at a glance. This is the "5G + smart coal mine" created by Xinyuan Coal Mine and Huawei.

With the help of 5G technology, the App has innovated and integrated in the trend of consumption, and the newly upgraded AR (augmented reality) shoe trial has expanded to more diversified life scenes such as AR makeup trial, AR try-on watches and AR trial hanging artworks, etc., and has achieved a number of innovations in terms of model fit, sports stability, etc., truly restoring the consumption scene, so that young people can experience try-on without leaving home.

Lijiang Ancient City adopts Lenovo's digital management overall solution based on 5G network deployment to create a smart town. Among them, the introduction of 5G cloud-based small stations can help operators save 25% to 30% of the cost of 5G network construction; intelligent scenarios such as unmanned retail stores, vending robots, and brushing faces can effectively improve the tourist experience; the digital operation capabilities of scenic spots have been greatly improved, and the cost reduction and efficiency increase effect is remarkable.

The mainland has vigorously cultivated the "double gigabit" network integration applications of 5G and gigabit optical networks, and has accumulated 23,000 application innovation cases. For industrial, smart city and other application fields, the first batch of new data centers in 44 countries were released. Emerging digital services for enterprises have become the first driving force for revenue growth in telecommunications services.

Zhao Zhiguo introduced that in order to improve the level of 5G integration applications, the "ten hundred thousand" project of 5G industry applications will be implemented, that is, 10 vertical industries will be selected, each industry will form 100 benchmarking demonstrations, and 1,000 new 5G industry virtual private networks will be built. At the same time, the 5G and Gigabit Optical Network Application Innovation Competition will be held, focusing on key industry areas to form innovative application demonstration benchmarks, adding new consumer tracks, committed to exploring new highlights of information consumption, creating an upgraded version of "5G + Industrial Internet", and promoting the expansion and extension of application scenarios from production peripheral links to internal links.

Innovative application ecosystem

On April 12, China Mobile launched a new 5G call product. The reporter saw at the scene that the huge "5G new call product" mobile phone interface on the screen flashed in turn with 5G new call product functions, such as 5G VoNR ultra-clear call, 5G video customer service, AI voice recognition, screen sharing, remote collaboration, and calls with virtual Sycophthiads and other features.

Ge Ji, an adjunct professor at the School of Economics and Management of Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, said that this is a successful practice of 5G independent networking network to carry the digital transformation of society. At the same time, it is expected that 5G news can be fully commercialized as soon as possible, and work together with 5G new calls to create an information productivity platform for the digital society.

Compared with traditional short messages, 5G messages are multimedia and interactive, not only with text, pictures, but also to send videos, locations, and even complete payments. Experts believe that 5G news will greatly improve the communication efficiency and experience between industry enterprises and users, and the application prospects in the enterprise-level market will be broader, and the industry information market will be harvested by hundreds of billions of yuan.

On January 25, China Telecom announced that 5G news was officially commercialized. Previously, China Mobile and China Unicom launched a trial commercial trial of 5G messaging in November 2021. 5G news has basically met the conditions for commercial use, but independent telecom analyst Fu Liang believes that at present, the scale of 5G news commercial use mainly faces two major problems, one is that there are not enough terminals to support 5G news, and the other is that the business model is not clear enough.

Many experts pointed out that the application ecology of 5G cannot keep up with the pace of network deployment and the development of the number of users, 5G has not yet appeared killer applications, and application innovation still needs to be broken. "To encourage innovation and create 5G heavy applications, we can reduce some restrictions on innovation, release water to raise fish, and introduce 5G communication needs." Pan and Lin said.

Zhao Zhiguo said that governments at all levels are encouraged to increase policy support for the development of digital information infrastructure such as 5G, and guide social capital to support application innovation. Promote local conditions and actively expand the integration and application of industries with local characteristics.

"We will cultivate a number of information consumption demonstration cities and demonstration projects, accelerate the integration and application of 5G technology with vertical industries such as energy, education, and cultural tourism, and vigorously tap consumption potential." Luo Junjie said. (Economic Daily reporter Huang Xin)