Compared with 5G, 5.5G will achieve a 10-fold increase in speed, latency, and connection scale. The three major telecom operators, Huawei and other communication giants are in full swing to accelerate the deployment of 5.5G, seize a new high point in the industry, strive to make industrial reserves for the future commercial use of 6G, and further consolidate the mainland's dominant position in the global communications industry.
China is accelerating the commercial construction of 5.5G (also known as 5G-A). On March 28, China Mobile launched the world's first 5.5G commercial deployment in Hangzhou, announced the list of the first batch of 100 5.5G network commercial cities, and announced that it plans to expand to more than 300 cities within the year to build the world's largest 5.5G commercial network.
5.5G is a key stage in the evolution from 5G to 6G. According to the "Xiaokang" magazine and China's Xiaokang Network, starting from 2023, China's three major telecom operators, China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom, will accelerate the withdrawal of 2G and 3G, and encourage old users who have withdrawn from the network to actively upgrade their 5G networks. At the same time, the three major telecom operators have put forward higher requirements for 5G network capabilities and plan to focus on the layout of the 5.5G ecosystem.
▲Photography: Ning Ying
According to the current rough estimate, the number of 5G package users in the whole network has exceeded 1.322 billion, and the penetration rate of 5G package users of the three major operators has reached 76.5%. An unnamed official from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said that 2024 is the first year of 5.5G commercialization, and domestic communication companies such as the three major telecom operators, Huawei, and ZTE are all paying attention to and deploying 5.5G, and some have formulated specific commercialization schedules.
Compared with the 5G package users of the three major telecom operators, at present, China Mobile has reached 758.776 million, China Telecom 406.64 million, and China Unicom 252 million, which shows that China Mobile's position in 5G package users is unshakable. For the layout of 5.5G, which of the three major telecom operators is better? According to public information, China Mobile is also moving faster and is in an absolute leading position. Shortly after the conclusion of the National People's Congress and the National People's Congress in March, China Mobile took the lead in announcing the list of the first batch of 100 5.5G network commercial cities, and announced that it would build the world's largest 5.5G commercial network within the year.
Gao Tongqing, deputy general manager of China Mobile, recently said that China Mobile will continue to play the role of a science and technology power, a network power, and the main force of digital China, and be a leader in the development of 5.5G for domestic operators.
On the one hand, it has taken the lead in completing the formulation of 60 5.5G international standards, ranking first among global operators, and taking the lead in carrying out 5.5G new technology trials in the industry; A new benchmark for extreme performance, a new service for endogenous determination, and a new architecture for synaesthesia computing intelligence. Two other telecom operators are also stepping up their efforts. China Unicom is currently actively promoting the 5.5G networking pilot and model construction, in order to improve network performance and business assurance capabilities, and previously, China Unicom has released the "5.5G Top Ten Innovation Demonstration Achievements", bringing a new paradigm for the development of the global 5.5G industry; China Telecom has also completed the three-carrier aggregation (3CC) 100 station scale deployment in many provinces and cities, and explored the implementation of 5.5G key technologies in steel, mining, medical and other industries.
Strive for the right to speak on 5.5G international standards
On March 22, the China Internet Network Information Center released the 53rd Statistical Report on the Development of China's Internet Network. According to the report, as of December 2023, there are 1.092 billion Internet users in mainland China, and the Internet penetration rate has reached 77.5%. The Internet plays an important role in accelerating new industrialization, developing new quality productivity, and boosting economic and social development.
The report points out that in 2023, the mainland will continue to accelerate the popularization of information services, and the digital divide will continue to narrow. As of December 2023, the number of Internet broadband access ports has reached 1.136 billion, a total of 3.377 million 5G base stations have been built, and 2.332 billion cellular IoT end users have been developed.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, who did not want to be named, told Xiaokang magazine and China's Xiaokang Network that by the end of 2023, the mainland's communication network will cover the whole country, fiber broadband will become the standard configuration for households, and the number of mobile Internet users will reach 1.092 billion. If you summarize the development process of mainland communication technology in one sentence, it is "1G blank, 2G follow, 3G breakthrough, 4G parallel running, 5G leading".
From the complete blank in the first generation of communication technology, to the introduction of GSM technology from Europe in the second generation of communication technology, to the independent innovation of TD-SCDMA in the third generation of communication technology, and the fourth generation of communication technology with the world TD-LTE and other technologies, the mainland has been catching up and surpassing in communication technology, until the fifth generation of communication technology has taken the lead in an all-round way, and has truly achieved leapfrog development, and can even be said to be a "gorgeous turnaround".
The concept of "new infrastructure" was first proposed at the Central Economic Work Conference in December 2018. Different from traditional infrastructure projects such as "railways, highways, and airports", "new infrastructure" mainly includes "5G infrastructure, UHV, intercity high-speed railway and urban rail transit, new energy vehicle charging piles, big data centers, artificial intelligence, industrial Internet" and other fields. In June 2019, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued 5G commercial licenses to China Telecom, China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Radio and Television, marking the official start of 5G commercial use in mainland China. Therefore, there is a saying in China that "2019 is the first year of 5G".
5G is a new generation of broadband mobile communication technology with high speed, low latency and large connection, 5G communication facilities are the network infrastructure to realize the interconnection of man-machine things, which can provide strong digital empowerment for various fields of economy and society, and promote digital, networked and intelligent transformation and upgrading. China has seized the historical opportunity of 5G development, accelerated the construction of 5G networks and the development of users, and realized the rapid advancement of 5G commercialization.
The maturity of each generation of communication technology will go through a series of processes such as standard formulation, technical verification, networking experiments, and application demonstrations. 5G standards are the foundation and guidance for the development of 5G technology, and they are also the core of 5G industry competition. China has also actively participated in the 5G-related work of international organizations such as the United Nations and the International Telecommunication Union, and the three major telecom operators such as China Mobile have participated in the formulation of 5G international standards, providing Chinese solutions for the formulation of globally unified 5G rules and standards.
In terms of the number of 5G international standard essential patents, the mainland accounts for more than 40%, ranking first in the world, and the mainland contributes 23% to the formulation of 5G international standards, ranking second. Science and technology are the primary productive forces, and by building an "innovation highland", the international discourse power of the mainland's 5G industry has been rapidly improved, and it has entered the first echelon of global 5G release.
Zhao Zhiguo, spokesman and chief engineer of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said that China has become the world's largest 5G market. As of the end of March, the country has built a total of 3.647 million 5G base stations, the penetration rate of 5G users has exceeded 60%, and the ports with gigabit network service capabilities have reached 24.56 million. ”
While 5G is penetrating into thousands of industries, it is also evolving to 5.5G. On April 17, Xu Zhijun, Vice Chairman and Rotating Chairman of Huawei, said at the 21st Huawei Analyst Conference: "5.5G will be commercialized on a large scale in 2024. It is expected that Release 18, the first international standard for 5.5G from 3GPP, will be frozen in June 2024, and then 5.5G corresponding products and solutions will be put into commercial use. He also revealed that during the 2024MWC, the world's top mobile communications event, in late February, "Huawei has also demonstrated a full range of 5.5G end-to-end solutions." We have also been in close discussions with the world's leading operators to put 5.5G into commercial use as soon as possible, so as to bring consumers a better network experience and promote the further development of the industry."
It is reported that the world's first 5.5G international standard will be released within the year. Huawei attaches great importance to participating in the formulation of 5.5G international standards. On October 10-11, 2023, at the 14th Global Mobile Broadband Forum (MWFP) titled "Bringing 5.5G to Reality", Huawei unveiled the world's first full-range 5.5G solution, which will provide 10 times the network capability through broadband, multi-band, multi-antenna, intelligence, and green innovations. Organized by the IMT-2020 (5G) Promotion Group, Huawei has completed the 5.5G technical performance test, which shows that Huawei has made major performance breakthroughs in a number of 5.5G uplink and downlink ultra-wideband technologies, and has applied end-to-end cross-layer collaboration technology to 5.5G broadband real-time interaction for the first time, achieving key progress in capacity and latency.
Looking back on the development process of mainland communication technology, many breakthroughs have been achieved from "0 to 1". He said that the China Communications Standards Association will resolutely implement the decision-making requirements of the party and the state, actively carry out the development of 5.5G international standards, promote the development of related products and industries, provide high-quality standard support for 5.5G applications, and build a cornerstone for the steady development of the industry.
The "starting gun" has sounded, ushering in the era of 5.5G commercialization
According to a manager of China Mobile, to put it simply, 5.5G is like a mid-term facelift of 5G, and it can even be said that it is a supplement to 5G. Its uplink rate is very high, and before the 6G network was commercialized, 5.5G was the ceiling of the network standard. 5.5G is more than 10 times faster than 5G in terms of connection speed, low network latency, and positioning accuracy.
For ordinary users, no matter what new technology is added, when it is implemented in actual use, it is natural that a larger amount of information can be stuffed at the same time, "For example, you can use your mobile phone to make a phone call while sending a lot of videos and pictures to the other side, and the network will not be blocked." The main focus is a real-time interaction with no information gaps".
Furthermore, compared with 5G, 5.5G has the characteristics of higher speed, larger connections, and lower latency. Specifically, it is mainly reflected in six aspects: first, the speed is faster, with a peak rate of up to 10 times that of 5G; second, the service is better, and customers can obtain hierarchical and hierarchical key service guarantees to meet the communication service needs of specific business forms and specific customer groups; third, the product is better, accelerating real-time 3D rendering, game content loading, and cloud collaboration, greatly improving 5G new calls, cloud phones, and Cloud computer and other product functions and experience; Fourth, the perception is more accurate, and the integrated synaesthesia promotes the communication network from a single data transmission to a comprehensive multi-dimensional perception, and efficiently meets the customer's water, land, and air all-scenario perception business needs; Fifth, it has a wider connection and integrates new passive IoT networking technology to realize the transition from single-point communication to "ultra-large-distance, ultra-large-scale passive IoT" Sixth, it is more stable in control, ensuring high reliability and low latency of critical data transmission through deterministic networks, and meeting customers' ultimate network requirements for precise control and collaborative operations.
The above-mentioned official from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, who did not want to be named, reminded that at the end of last year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, together with the National Development and Reform Commission and other 11 departments, issued the "Notice on Carrying out the Special Action of "Signal Upgrade", which clearly stated that the main goal of the "Signal Upgrade" special action was clearly stated - "to achieve a significant increase in mobile network (4G and 5G) signals, a significant improvement in the end-to-end business perception of mobile users, a more powerful guarantee of resource elements, and a continuous enhancement of monitoring and evaluation capabilities, so as to provide users with good signals, excellent experience, high-quality network services with strong capabilities". The so-called "signal upgrade" and "significant signal enhancement of mobile networks (4G and 5G)" are actually to accelerate the deployment of 5.5G commercial networks. This year's "Government Work Report" of the National People's Congress and the National People's Congress put forward the requirement of "moderately advanced layout of digital infrastructure", which is also to help accelerate the deployment of 5.5G commercial networks. 5G has entered the fifth year of large-scale commercial use, and the next 5.5G network commercial use is not only the cornerstone of 5G application development in the next few years, but also the key support to lead the 6G era.
3CC stands for 3 Component Carriers, which literally translates as "three component carriers", which is one of the key features of 5.5G. Everyone's got it