An in-depth interpretation of the communications section of the 2019 Government Work Report

As we all know, the National People's Congress Government Work Report is a weathervane of the country's macroeconomic policies. Therefore, every industry will pay attention to the content related to the industry in the report and conduct careful analysis and research.

The conclusions of the research are crucial for understanding the future development direction of the industry and formulating business goals and strategies.

The same is true for the communications industry. In this year's report, the content related to the communications industry is also full of gems.

Next, let Xiaozaojun give you a brief interpretation.

▌ “Carry out a demonstration of providing gigabit broadband to households in cities”

This means that the government encourages operators to further upgrade FTTH (fiber to the home) in urban areas from the current 100M to 1000M broadband access. The speed of home fiber broadband will be increased to 1000Mbps .

Currently, only a few cities and communities in my country have 1000Mbps fiber-optic broadband access capabilities. In most urban areas, broadband service capabilities are 20~200Mbps.

Xiaozaojun believes that the main difficulty in promoting gigabit broadband is not technical, but the balance between demand and cost.

Even if the home broadband is 100Mbps, it is enough to watch 4K or even 8K ultra-high-definition videos, and it is even easier to play games. If you download a movie based on a 2GB file size, it only takes 2×1024MB÷12.5MB/s=163.84 seconds. This is within an acceptable range.

Upgrading to gigabit broadband will not make much difference in user experience, but the increased cost of equipment upgrades is an important disadvantage that must be considered.

In addition, the cost of equipment renovation in " old, dilapidated and small " residential areas will be higher, and the obstruction and sky-high prices of property management will undoubtedly affect the enthusiasm of operators to upgrade broadband. These costs will obviously be passed on to users, which is also one of the factors that users need to consider.

Comparison of 200M and 1000M broadband rates of a certain operator

In fact, instead of upgrading to Gigabit, I hope the Prime Minister can push operators to liberalize the upstream rate of home broadband. Currently, the downstream rate of home broadband is often not a problem, but the upstream rate is the problem - the upstream rate is forcibly limited by the operator to one tenth of the downstream rate, which is very abominable.

With the rapid development of cloud computing and Internet of Things technologies and the gradual advancement of home digitization, the demand for uplink bandwidth of ordinary home users will become increasingly greater. Removing the restrictions on uplink speed is of far-reaching significance.

▌ “Transform and improve distance education and telemedicine networks”

This is closely related to the Internet of Things and also closely related to 5G.

I don’t know if you still remember that not long ago, there was an article titled “This Screen May Change Your Destiny” that went viral on WeChat Moments.

Although the content of this article is highly controversial, it is undeniable that distance education itself has great significance. It can transmit resources to a wider range through a high-speed and stable network, and it has a certain role in improving the current imbalance in resource allocation.

The same is true for telemedicine.

Compared with distance education, telemedicine has higher requirements for communication technology. For example, remote surgery, the most difficult part of telemedicine, definitely needs a low-latency and high-reliability network like 5G to support it.

Remote surgery under 5G network

In the future, communication networks will bring more remote application scenarios, which will gradually change our lives.

▌ “We will promote the expansion and upgrading of mobile network base stations, so that users can truly feel faster and more stable network speeds.”

Needless to say, last month China Unicom launched a tender for LTE base stations. We have already discussed that no matter how 5G will develop, operators must have a very stable and reliable network as a foundation. The most suitable network for this mission is obviously the 4G LTE network. LTE will continue to invest in capacity expansion and upgrades to better accomplish its mission.

Although our country's current communication network is already very powerful, it still has coverage gaps and capacity bottlenecks. Weak or even no signal is still a common phenomenon, and I believe everyone has the same feeling.

Therefore, there is still a long way to go to achieve in-depth coverage and optimization of 4G networks.

▌ "This year, the average broadband charges for small and medium-sized enterprises will be reduced by another 15%, and the average mobile network data charges will be reduced by more than 20%."

The topic of reducing service charges is raised by the Prime Minister every year. I believe everyone has seen the effect of speed increase and fee reduction in recent years.

For the majority of users, this is definitely a good thing. But for the communications industry... you know, it's another bloody storm.

In fact, if there is full market competition, a reasonable reduction in tariffs is of course a good thing. But I think that the units that should optimize management, improve efficiency, and control costs are not doing so, but are only pushing the cost pressure further down to downstream companies, resulting in even slimmer profits and more brutal competition. This may not be what the Prime Minister intended.

It is worth noting that the report emphasizes that the reduction in broadband charges for small and medium-sized enterprises should be a kind of policy support for the country to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship. As an entrepreneur, Xiaozaojun still feels deeply that the broadband installed by operators for enterprises is usually much more expensive than the broadband installed for households. In terms of technology and equipment, the two are actually the same.

▌ “ Implementing ‘ number portability ’ across the country ”

The most important thing is to port your number!

The Prime Minister said that number portability will be implemented nationwide. This attitude can be said to be very clear.

What is “number portability”?

As the name suggests, number portability means changing networks with your number. In other words, changing networks without changing your number.

Number Portability

For example, if you currently have a China Mobile number starting with 139, after you apply for "number portability", the number remains the same, but the operator affiliation changes - the service package becomes China Telecom or China Unicom, and the network and services used also become China Telecom or China Unicom. This is number portability.

The service of number portability will help break down monopoly barriers, facilitate users to make their own choices, further stimulate competition among operators, and bring more benefits to consumers. It is definitely a good thing for users.

“Number portability”, also known as “number portability”

In fact, this business is very old. It has a history of at least 13 years in China .

As early as October 2006, the then Ministry of Information Industry (the predecessor of the current Ministry of Industry and Information Technology) issued Document No. 630 - "Notice of the Ministry of Information Industry on Protecting Mobile Phone Users' Right to Choose Tariff Plans", which mentioned the "number portability" or "number portability" policy for the first time.

Although the idea of ​​number portability was proposed very early, the pace of its implementation has been very slow.

It was not until November 22, 2010 that the first batch of number portability trials were launched in Tianjin and Hainan .

Later, four years later, on September 20, 2014, the second batch of number portability pilot projects were launched in Jiangxi , Hubei , and Yunnan .

Now, it is 2019, and these five pilot provinces and cities are still the same, with no changes.

According to the plan of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, it will take at least until 2020 for "number portability" to be promoted nationwide .

This time, the Premier’s Government Work Report has undoubtedly put more pressure on the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and will accelerate the promotion of this business.

Well, the above is Xiaozaojun’s interpretation of the communications-related part of the Government Work Report.

Communication needs are basic human needs. With the advent of 5G, our country will pay more attention to the development of the communications industry and increase investment in the communications industry. For us in communications, this is a rare historical opportunity and a difficult social responsibility. Only by working harder can we build a faster and better network, provide users with a perfect experience, and safeguard the country's social and economic development.