Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (hereinafter referred to as the "Ministry of Industry and Information Technology") issued the "Notice on Carrying out the 2024 5G Lightweight (RedCap) Breakthrough Action". This is another important document issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) to promote the commercialization process of 5G RedCap, following the issuance of the Notice on Promoting the Evolution of 5G Lightweight (RedCap) Technology and Application Innovation and Development in October 2023.
Last year's notice aimed at 2025 and put forward the requirements for RedCap technology research and industrialization development. This notice aims to implement the content of the previous notice on an annual basis, specifically puts forward the key work and development goals for 2024, requires the completion of the formulation of industry standards in September, the continuous coverage of more than 100 prefecture-level cities by the end of the year, and the launch of more than 100 5G RedCap terminal products around industrial gateways, cameras, AGVs, etc. The newly released notice will further accelerate the construction of the 5G RedCap industry ecosystem and inject new impetus into the comprehensive development of 5G technology in mainland China.
As a 5G specification defined specifically for IoT applications, RedCap technology has important features such as large uplink, low latency, and high reliability unique to 5G. It can be applied in services such as distribution automation and distribution network differential protection, which can realize real-time perception of the operation status of the distribution network, shorten the fault handling and recovery time to minutes, and greatly improve the reliability of power supply.
For example, in February 2024, during MWC 2024, the GSMA awarded the "Best Private Network Solution" award to the Pratt & Whitney 5G smart grid solution jointly built by China Unicom, State Grid, Huawei and TD Tech in Shandong. The 5G RedCap technology used in this solution can provide wide coverage, high security, low cost, and easy-to-deploy connections for power services, which is expected to reduce power terminal costs by 60%.
The successful application in the smart grid is a microcosm of the 5G RedCap technology that has begun to play a role in the main battlefield of the economy, an important milestone in the development of 5G IoT, and a sign that 5G RedCap is entering the stage of large-scale deployment.
Since the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a document in October 2023, the commercialization process of 5G RedCap has been significantly accelerated, and 2024 will become a blooming year - the three industry standards led by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, Boding Shihua, and China Unicom have entered the final sprint stage, and telecom operators have also started the network first process. On April 11, China Unicom and China Telecom jointly announced the completion of the first province-wide 5G RedCap co-construction and sharing network, and completed the opening of the RedCap function of 120,000 base stations in Guangdong's "3.5GHz+2.1GHz", forming wide-area continuous coverage. Previously, China Mobile has announced that it will support RedCap with a total of more than 100,000 5G base stations, covering 52 cities across the country, achieving continuous coverage in urban areas. While the network construction is actively promoted, the application of RedCap is also deepening. For example, China Unicom Guangdong has completed the commercial pilot of RedCap in many industrial scenarios such as Foshan Midea and Haitian Seasoning, and comprehensively promoted the embedding of RedCap in industry terminal equipment. In wide-area networking scenarios such as the Internet of Vehicles and the Vision, the wireless cameras launched by Zhejiang Dahua that support RedCap networking have been applied to the Hangzhou Asian Games, and car companies represented by GAC and BYD have begun to promote RedCap to "get on the car" and improve the level of vehicle intelligence.
The development of 5G IoT is an important task for the implementation of new industrialization characterized by "three modernizations and three characteristics", a specific task for the implementation of national strategic emerging industries and a key task for deepening the "5G Application "Sailing" Action Plan (2021-2023).
Since the launch of 5G in 2019, the mainland has led the world in 5G development, building the world's largest, most technologically advanced, and most innovative 5G network. 5G mobile phone shipments have accounted for more than 80%, and consumers have basically realized the transformation and upgrading of communications. The effective development of consumer applications has laid a solid foundation for the development of 5G IoT. At present, the mobile communication industry has entered the era of "superhuman things". By the end of August 2023, the number of mobile IoT connections in China has reached 2.177 billion, and the proportion of "thing" connections has increased to 55.9%. With the commercial use of RedCap, the 4G to 5G conversion in the IoT field is expected to be officially launched, and the entire industry will usher in huge development opportunities in the 5G era of the Internet of Things.
*This article was originally published in Communication World Issue No. 942 April 25, 2024 Issue 8 Original title: "Connecting Everything and Accelerating the Commercialization of 5G RedCap"
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Author: Qiu Jianshu, China Unicom Research Institute
Editor-in-charge/Layout: Gai Beibei
Reviewer: Wang Tao, Mei Yaxin
Producer: Liu Qicheng
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