On April 26, China Unicom and China Telecom (ranking before and after) opened an interconnected 5G new call ultra-high definition video voice call service (VoNR:Voice over New Radio) in Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Zhengzhou, Tianjin and other cities. The two operators will open more than 100 major cities in May, and other regions will also be opened and interconnected.
Previously, on April 12, China Mobile released the "5G New Call", (see my previous article "5G is the Next City, China Mobile and Wang Meng Released "5G New Call").) In this article, I did the relevant analysis. With the maturity of 4G and 5G networks, after the SMS is upgraded to "5G messages", voice calls are also upgraded to "5G new calls", which is an inevitable choice for technological progress.
Although the three major telecom operators have prepared "sky-high" instructions for "5G new calls" and "5G messages", it seems that the two powerful "gods" are powerful. In fact, the most basic function of "5G messaging" and "5G new calls" is the replacement of traditional calls and text messages, and operators should transfer telephone and SMS services from 2G and 3G to 5G to eventually release the high-quality frequency bands used by 2G and 3G, and transfer them to 4G and 5G networks.
This has two advantages, one is that operators completely shut down 2G and 3G networks, which will save operation and maintenance costs and will also reduce the complexity of the network, and the other is that 5G networks can use more high-quality frequency bands that were originally occupied by 2G and 3G, and a base station can cover a larger range, so that the number of base stations can be reduced, and the network coverage and coverage depth can be improved to give users a better experience.
"5G new calls" and "5G messages" are inevitable trends and are alternatives to traditional "phone calls" and "SMS" functions. On the other hand, it is also technological progress. When there is just a mobile phone, or an analog signal to call, the 2G era has been replaced by a digital signal call, the call quality has been significantly improved, but due to the limited number of bytes transmitted at a time, the call is limited to low-quality voice, the text message is also limited to dozens of words, and can not contain memes, etc. The "5G new call" and "5G message" make full use of the high bandwidth and low latency features brought by the new technology, and can transmit more content at a time, such as high-definition video chat, and then add pictures and videos to sms.
In fact, operators have similar new service pilots in the 3G and 4G eras, such as video calls launched by China Unicom in 3G; instant chat tools, such as China Mobile's Fetion, China Telecom's Yixin (later cooperated with NetEase and renamed E-Xin); and VoLTE in the 4G era, but none of them have formed a scale, let alone replaced traditional services.
But now the situation is different. The "reduction" of the three major telecom operators' 2G and 3G "frequency reduction and station reduction" has reached the extreme, and the next step must be arranged to withdraw from the network. Before retiring from the network, it is necessary to migrate the phone and SMS first, and "5G messages" and "5G new calls" came into being. Therefore, the first purpose of these two services is to replace, not innovate and add value. In this regard, the operator's publicity has deviations, and it must first form a large enough user base to expand the business, otherwise it will fall into the vicious circle of "waiting for the chicken to lay the egg" and "waiting for the egg to hatch the chicken".
It should be noted that "5G messages" and "5G new calls" are 5G services that can give full play to the characteristics of 5G network speed, high bandwidth and low latency, but they can not only be used for 5G networks, in fact, most of their functions can also be used on 4G networks.
Since "5G messaging" and "5G new calls" are the basic functions of alternative SMS and telephone in the future, the three major telecom operators should unify their standards and formulate unified interconnection specifications. Just like the telephone, whether you are mobile to Unicom or telecom to mobile, you should be able to use it, not just two telecom operators can interconnect. Now the three major telecom operators are like playing the three countries, China Mobile is Wei, China Telecom is Wu, China Unicom is Shu, and Telecom Unicom is like Wushu united against Wei. On the network, this is okay, but if "5G messaging" and "5G new calls" are to become basic services in the future, interconnection is a basic requirement.
Interestingly, just like Shu and Wu in the Three Kingdoms period, China Telecom and China Unicom have not forgotten the competition while cooperating, for example, we can search for two press releases with the same content on the Internet, "A and B take the lead in realizing 5G new call interconnection", each word is the same. Except for one point, the title and content of the article, the pictures, all the places involving the combination of the names of the two operators, are "before the others".
(China Unicom Official Publicity Draft)
(Obviously from China Telecom's promotional release)
In addition, in terms of mobile phone support, the three major telecom operators also lack sufficient hardness. This is a problem that has always existed in the 3G and 4G eras. Whether it is for industry chain partner users or users, it should be more ruthless. Since "5G new calls" and "5G messages" are the basic services to replace telephone calls and text messages in the future, telecom operators should formulate a clear timetable. It is mandatory for mobile phone manufacturers and operating systems to fully support the landing of the two basic services of "5G new calls" and "5G messages".