5G is a new generation of communication technology that has attracted great attention from all countries in recent years, and there is a rush for commercial deployment. It will not only significantly improve mobile Internet business capabilities, but will also further expand the field of the Internet of Things and transform the service object from human-to-human communication to human-to-thing and thing-to-thing communication. From this, it is not difficult to understand the intention of major countries around the world to enter the “battlefield” one after another.
2019 is recognized by the industry as the first year of 5G development. In this year, the South Korean government held a “5G Strategy” conference and announced that it would promote the national-level 5G strategy and create a world-class 5G ecosystem; 5G operators in the United States continued to accelerate, following Verizon becoming the first 5G operator , AT·T announced that it will expand its 5G network deployment to 7 more cities. In addition to the previous 12 cities, its 5G network coverage will reach 19 cities. In addition, T-Mobile and Sprint will also successively launch 5G commercial services. In the same year, China also started issuing licenses for 5G commercial use.
Similarly, there are also latecomers. Although they did not catch up with the first year of commercial release, they are not slow either. On March 25 this year, Japan’s largest mobile operator NTT DoCoMo became the first telecom operator in Japan to launch 5G commercial mobile communication services. Subsequently, KDDI and SoftBank launched 5G services on March 26 and 27 respectively.
The latest GSA report shows that as of now, 73 operators have launched commercial 5G services in 41 countries and regions around the world that comply with 3GPP standards. At the same time, GSA statistics show that 380 operators around the world are investing in 5G networks. These networks are in different states of testing, trials, pilots, planning, or have actually been deployed. 88 operators have announced that they have deployed 5G networks in their networks. 5G technology that complies with 3GPP standards.
It can be seen that 5G has become a “prairie fire” on a global scale, and 5G commercial globalization does not have to wait too long. Of course, cooperation also plays an important role in this.
It is reported that many countries that have not built 5G network technology infrastructure have chosen to cooperate with other countries to speed up the commercialization of 5G in their countries. Germany has led 28 European countries in choosing to cooperate with the Chinese company Huawei. In addition, 11 Middle Eastern countries, 6 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, and 1 African country have all extended an olive branch to Huawei.
Analyzing the global 5G development momentum, China is undoubtedly the leader. The latest statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology show that the number of 5G base stations in my country is increasing by more than 10,000 per week. Currently, the number of 5G terminal connections has exceeded 36 million. As of the end of May, China Mobile has built 140,000 5G base stations and will complete the construction of 300,000 base stations by the end of this year, covering more than 340 cities at the prefecture level and above.
Matching infrastructure construction, innovation in commercial applications also represents China’s 5G dominance. Data released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology shows that currently, more than 400 5G innovative applications have been carried out across the country, widely involving industry, transportation, medical and other industries, and there are more than 600 “5G Industrial Internet” projects under construction. In terms of industrial support, as of the end of May, domestic 5G mobile phone shipments have reached 59.85 million units, and it is expected that by the end of 2020, 5G mobile phone shipments will reach 180 million units.
Such achievements are inseparable from China’s great emphasis on 5G. As for whether China can continue to maintain such a leading advantage in the future, we might as well find the answer from foreign media reports. Many foreign media have said that although China is not the first country to realize 5G commercialization, China’s current 5G technology has surpassed the United States and reached a leading position in the world, and its number of patent applications is significantly higher than other countries. For at least the next five years, China will be the absolute leader in the 5G field.