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China Mobile's "5G New Call" launched trial commercial use, can it become a killer application?

China Mobile's "5G New Call" launched trial commercial use, can it become a killer application?

Image source: Oriental IC

Recently, China Mobile released the "5G New Call" series of products, mainly promoting 5G video calling (VoNR), which can be used directly with the native dial pad of the mobile phone. After the birth of this new product, it has attracted a lot of attention, and some people believe that it is expected to become the next 5G killer application, and even compete with WeChat.

In the 5G era, operators are exploring the use of mobile phone numbers as a unified account, and quickly log in to use various services through number authentication, including search, interaction, payment, etc.

Previously, 5G news was a major exploration of the three major operators in terms of SMS upgrades, but the development has been somewhat tepid. The "5G video call" is similar to the "WeChat video call" based on the operator's network, and the industry is waiting and seeing, can this allow the operator to regain the initiative, and even change the user's habit of finding an APP when something happens?

China Mobile pushes 5G video calls, which are billed on time

The relevant person in charge of China Mobile said that compared with the voice and video calls on the Internet, the new 5G calls are "more stable and more convenient", stable in the call quality, and the telephone inbound is not interrupted; convenient in the mobile phone terminal native, the dial pad can dial video calls, without downloading APP and Mini Programs.

According to reports, 5G video calls use VoNR (Voice over New Radio) technology, which is an audio and video service solution under the 5G SA network architecture, which takes advantage of the large bandwidth and low latency characteristics of the 5G SA network, and can enable voice, video and data services to be carried on the 5G network.

In terms of sound quality, the VoNR sound transmission bandwidth is extended from 50Hz-7000Hz to 20Hz-14000Hz. In terms of image quality, the resolution can reach 720p, which is another level higher than the VoLTE call 480P. Therefore, the effect of using 5G video calls for pictures and sounds will be higher than that of current video calls made by social software such as WeChat.

It can be said that sound quality, picture quality and ultra-low latency will become the advantages of Competition between China Mobile and WeChat.

At the same time, at present, if you want to make video calls, whether it is FaceTime, WeChat or other instant messaging tools are based on APP, 5G video calls are completely based on the phone's native dial pad, address book, it can be said that some steps are omitted.

In order to promote the new 5G calls, China Mobile first played the tariff card. During the trial period, 5G video calls will be billed on time and no data fee will be charged; from May 1, the number of voice minutes in the 5G package will be upgraded to the number of minutes that can be used for new 5G calls for audio and video calls.

Judging from the current settings of various communication packages and the consumption habits of users, the number of voice minutes in the package generally far exceeds the demand. In this case, the billing method of 5G video calls is counted in voice calls, which is almost a loss-making transaction for operators, but it can enhance the attractiveness of users in the early stage.

At the same time, domestic mobile phone terminal manufacturers have said that they will fully support 5G video call services. It is understood that 5G terminals that will be released in October 2021 and later will be expected to support video calling (VoNR) after upgrading; starting in July this year, the new 5G mobile phones will support video calls (VoNR) functions by default. However, due to various reasons, Apple phones do not currently support this feature.

Challenges beyond the advantages still exist, and telecommunications and Unicom products are ready to be launched

In fact, video calling is not a completely new service for operators, but it always seems to be a bit "hot" in the development process.

In the 3G era, the cost threshold is high, and the video call technology, network, and terminal are not mature; in the 4G era, major Internet companies compete for the best, and each has a strange trick to keep users on their own APP as much as possible. Now in the 5G era, with the development of various technologies, video calls seem to have begun to open the door to telecom operators, but how to reverse user habits has become a major problem faced by operators.

Moreover, in the case of wireless networks, using social software can use video calls regardless of time and cost, which seems to be more friendly to users who have long-term chat needs.

At the same time, since 5G VoNR is still in the early stage of commercial development, there are still certain challenges in terms of network coverage and quality, terminal capacity, and industrial chain.

First of all, if 5G VoNR is to be commercialized on a large scale, it needs to have the broad coverage of the 5G SA network.

In terms of 5G network coverage, by the end of 2021, China Mobile has opened more than 730,000 5G base stations, of which 200,000 are 700MHz 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 sites, and serving 5G network customers to 207 million households.

In addition to network coverage, it is also necessary to popularize terminals, although the new machines of mobile phone manufacturers are 5G mobile phones, but there is still a certain distance from the real popularization of 5G mobile phones and packages.

According to the data, from January to February 2022, domestic 5G mobile phone shipments were 37.698 million units, accounting for 78.7% of mobile phone shipments in the same period. As of the end of February 2022, the number of 5G package users in mainland China was 792.46 million, of which China Mobile already had 425.42 million 5G package users, China Telecom had 202.14 million, and China Unicom also had 164.9 million.

It can be said that China Mobile has made some progress in the construction of 5G networks and the development of package users. However, some analysts believe that the current video call can not be used across operators, non-5G mobile phones and packages can not be used, may raise the threshold, become a difficult point to attract users.

In addition to China Mobile, China Telecom Zhejiang announced on April 15 that it will achieve the country's first VoNR large-scale commercial use in Hangzhou, kicking off the commercial prelude to the commercial use of China Telecom Group. According to China Telecom's plan for 5G terminals in 2022 last year, VoNR laboratory testing will be carried out in the first quarter, live network verification will be carried out in the second quarter, and the commercial use of VoNR services will be comprehensively promoted this year.

China Unicom released the "2021 Annual Terminal Evaluation Report" to indicate that Unicom's 5G VoNR technology has made great progress and has basically met the conditions for commercial use. Dual SIM terminals will support dual SIM dual VoNR in the third quarter of 2022 to ensure that primary and secondary card users can enjoy 5G HD voice.

At that time, whether 5G video calls can become a customer point for various telecom operators will take time to prove.

"5G message" is muffled, can "5G new call" become a killer application?

Before 5G video calls, the 5G news launched by the three major operators briefly became the focus of the industry. However, since it has never crossed the threshold of terminals and business models, the subsequent development of 5G news is somewhat silent.

On January 25 this year, China Telecom announced that 5G news has entered the commercial phase. Zhang Xiaojun, deputy general manager of China Telecom's marketing department, said that the construction of China Telecom's 5G messaging platform was completed, the operation system was basically completed, and it already had the ability to manage, operate and systematize security. For individuals, China Telecom provides 5G messaging standard packages to explore a variety of billing modes, while expanding the coverage of 5G messaging terminals and strengthening industry cooperation.

Previously, in November 2021, China Unicom launched a trial commercial use of 5G messaging across the country, and has successively connected to dozens of CSPs (Chatbot Service Providers), which will initially provide application scenarios in the fields of smart finance, smart supermarkets, smart logistics, smart government, and smart travel.

In March this year, China Unicom upgraded its own annual flagship 5G mobile phone to enjoy the best, and the biggest selling point is to support 5G news. China Telecom's own brand mobile phone Mai Mang 10 also announced a comprehensive upgrade and support for 5G news.

Fu Liang, an independent telecom analyst, believes that at present, the three major telecom operators have put "5G messages" and "5G new calls" in the position of upgrading and replacing traditional service functions, and the functions are more powerful, but the tariffs remain unchanged, which is conducive to the smooth transition of traditional basic telecommunications services. In contrast, the basic service of "5G new call" is simpler and easier to understand, which can be understood as a high-definition video version of traditional calls, and can also be understood as "WeChat video chat" based on the operator's stable network, and these two services have been well known to users across the country, which is a strong promotion of the business, and "5G new calls" or precede "5G messages" are successful.

It is understood that in addition to being a video call product, 5G new calls also have video customer service, AI speech recognition, screen sharing, remote collaboration and other functions. Among them, 5G video customer service supports multiple business scenarios such as basic business investigation, high-sensitivity service authorization, remote operation guidelines, etc., and has more than 2,000 customers in the To B field.

However, on the C-side, although the threshold of various technical hardware has gradually disappeared, if the user's call habits want to change, it seems that it needs to be more in line with the needs of the needs and stimulate the emergence of consumption functions.

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