When it comes to 5G adoption, China is clearly ahead of the rest of the world. A single city in China has more 5G base stations than the whole of Europe. As surprising as this is, it is true. Today, China held the world 5G Conference in Beijing. The Chinese Minister of Industry and Information Technology, Xiao Yaqing, announced that as of now, China has 993,000 5G base stations. This figure is only seven thousand shy of 1 million 5G base stations.
According to him, 5G base stations are now available in all prefecture-level cities. He also claims that it covers over 95% of counties and districts and 35% of towns across the country. Furthermore, the number of 5G terminal mobile phone connections exceeds 392 million.
In addition, Liu Yulin of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology also stated that the 5G terminal market continues to expand. From January to July this year, Chinese 5G mobile phone shipments totaled 150 million units. Furthermore, the price of 5G mobile phones has dropped below 1,000 yuan ($155).
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Song Qizhu, chairman of China Radio and Television, also said at the conference that the radio and television will also promote the integration and empowerment of 5G and traditional cable TV, and develop 5G radio and television. At the World 5G Conference, some exhibitors revealed that 5G news will be fully commercialized by the end of this year, and it is expected to become one of the first popular scenarios for 5G applications.
China is far ahead of the world in 5G deployment
As of the end of last year, China had 718,000 5G base stations, accounting for 70% of the world’s total. This year, the country will have well over 1 million 5G base stations. A professor at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Sun Songlin, said
“China is currently building a large-scale 5G network, which is far ahead of the world, and there are many voices of doubt in the industry. In the 4G era, China’s mobile Internet applications are number one in the world…but earlier deployments in the United States, Europe, Japan, and other countries and regions are not as prosperous as China. To be precise, it was the large-scale, wide-coverage 4G that detonated the mobile Internet. From the very beginning, 5G will roll out on a large scale and with wide coverage. It is the same logic. In the process of long-term integration with the industry, new business forms will be produced and industrial upgrading and digital transformation will be promoted”.
