5G’s China Moment

Although China issued 5G licenses later than the United States and South Korea, because Chinese companies have made early preparations in network and terminal technologies, China's 5G industry may quickly gain an advantage and catch up.

"In the field of 5G, China is repeating the story of the United States in 4G." In a report at the end of the month, the U.S. Defense Innovation Board mentioned with concern that countries leading in 5G will have many innovations and set standards for the rest of the world. Unfortunately, the United States does not have this leading advantage.

The committee is full of talents, including former Google chairman Eric Schmidt, Steve Jobs biographer Isaacson, and LinkedIn partners and other business and academic elites. As we all know, the fifth generation of communication technology, 5G, has significant features such as high speed, low latency and greater user connection capabilities. It is one of the most important underlying technologies to open up the future era of the Internet of Everything.

The 4G cycle of the communications industry began in 2010. The United States quickly deployed 4G networks, which helped companies such as Qualcomm and Apple consolidate their position in the communications market. At the same time, it also promoted the emergence of Internet innovations such as Uber and Airbnb.

American elites believe that China is likely to repeat this path: 5G networks will be rapidly deployed, Chinese mobile phone companies such as Huawei and OV will gain first-mover advantage, and Internet companies such as Tencent and Alibaba will launch 5G applications that are popular around the world. Judging from the current results, some of their concerns have become irreversible trends and facts.

1. “5G Tsunami”

Morenkov, CEO of Qualcomm, the world's largest mobile chip company, believes that in the 4G era, because Chinese operators lagged behind American operators in launching new products, their pace in some mobile Internet innovations was also relatively slow. Perhaps having learned from the lessons of the lag in 4G progress, Chinese operators are investing in 5G at a very fast pace this time.

During the recent MWC Shanghai conference, China Mobile announced that it would deploy 5G networks in more than 50 cities in China by the end of 2019, and would deploy nearly 100,000 NSA 5G base stations in 2019 alone. At the same time, China Telecom also announced that it would complete 5G commercial deployment in 40 cities by the end of the year. Previously, China Unicom also announced the same 5G city goal.

This means that basically all major cities in China will complete 5G commercial deployment in 2019, and China will have the world's largest 5G commercial network.

Public information shows that even now, at least 16 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in China can make 5G calls.

Well-known consulting firm Deloitte believes: "China and other countries may be setting off a 5G 'tsunami'." In a previously released report, Deloitte used detailed data to compare the current status of the game between China and the United States on 5G - China has spent US$24 billion more than the United States in 5G since 2015, and has built 350,000 base stations supporting 5G communications, while the United States has built less than 30,000 5G base stations in the same period.

Judging purely from the number of base stations, China's 5G base station scale is already 10 times that of the United States. At present, China has actually built the world's largest NSA 5g network.

——In the report of the U.S. Defense Innovation Board, this fact made the American elites feel sad and said it was unacceptable.

The communications industry association GSMA predicts that by 2025, China's telecom operators' 5G investment will exceed 1 trillion yuan, reaching 184 billion US dollars, and nearly one-third of business applications will be on 5G networks, accounting for one-third of the world's 5G networks.

It is not just the scale of network base stations that is leading. Ulrich, vice chairman of JPMorgan Chase Asia Pacific, said that the popularity of 5G and artificial intelligence technologies, coupled with China's large population, will make China the best stage for testing and commercializing new products and services.

With the rapid popularization of 5G networks, China Mobile announced that it would invest more than 3 billion yuan to support the construction of the 5G ecosystem. During a recent earthquake relief operation in Sichuan, China Mobile and a hospital in Sichuan joined forces to implement 5G telemedicine services, allowing medical teams thousands of miles away to accurately help injured victims and provide consultation and treatment. Latin American News Agency commented in its report on this news that while European and American operators were still arguing over their respective 5G frequency spectrums and had just started to deploy 5G networks, China had already applied 5G to daily life.

2. 5G mobile phone Chinese group

It is difficult for users to actually feel the real difference of 5G with only the basic network of operators. As the closest link to users in the 5G era, the importance of terminals is self-evident.

In this regard, China also has a huge advantage. A number of Chinese manufacturers, represented by Huawei and OV, have actually started to lay out and develop related fields very early.

The flourishing of various industries at this year's Mobile World Congress (MWC2019) is the best proof of this.

At this conference, ZTE brought the Axon 10 Pro, Huawei displayed the world's first 5G foldable screen mobile phone Mate X, OnePlus also demonstrated its first 5G prototype on site, vivo launched the 5G version of iQOO and demonstrated many innovative technologies based on 5G, such as 120W ultra-fast flash charging to solve the pain point of mobile phone battery life in the 5G era, AR glasses which are an important means of smart interaction, and so on.

An increasingly obvious trend is that we feel that in the upcoming era of the Internet of Everything, mobile phones will exist as a connection center.

In short, it shows us a possibility that 5G may be more than just 5G devices for the mobile phone industry. For example, Huawei released a 5G communication hardware designed for the automotive industry in April - MH5000. We see that Chinese terminal manufacturers are also promoting applications in some sub-industries.

There is a phenomenon that currently there are only a few 5G mobile phones available in the markets of the United States, South Korea, Australia and other countries, such as Samsung and LG, and they are expensive. However, other domestic manufacturers will successively launch 5G versions of mobile phones, such as Huawei and iQOO in July and August. At that time, we can observe the prices and make comparisons.

This time, China's advantages in 5G deployment can be said to be all-round. In addition to network coverage and mobile phone terminals, China also has very strong strength in the reserve of technical patents such as chips.

According to the 43rd "Statistical Report on the Development of China's Internet", as of March 2018, China's submissions of 5G international standard documents accounted for 32% of the world's total, and China led 40% of standardization projects. Both the speed and quality of promotion are among the best in the world.

At the chip level, domestic companies such as Huawei and MediaTek have also launched 5G chips. In terms of discourse power, Qualcomm has already felt great pressure. In this regard, an interesting joke in the market says, "After more than three years, MediaTek is finally no longer silent."

3. Comparison between China and foreign countries

Previously, South Korean operators grabbed the title of "the first 5G commercial country" with a network coverage rate of about 10%. However, public feedback was very negative. Netizens commented that "there is often no signal and it needs to be restarted to solve it." This actually reflects the problems of network coverage and user experience;

On the other hand, South Korea's 5G network charges are also very expensive: South Korea's three major telecom operators, Korea Telecom, SK Telecom and LG U+, have offered 5G packages of different levels, with monthly fees ranging from 55,000 won (about 325 yuan) to 130,000 won (about 769 yuan).

Another example comes from Verizon, the largest wireless operator in the United States. In early October, Verizon officially launched 5G commercial services in Los Angeles, Sacramento, Indianapolis, and Houston. This was also the world's first officially launched 5G commercial network. But the effect was not very good.

A Verizon spokesperson admitted earlier this year that their initial deployment was indeed small. CNET reporter Jessica Dolcourt also felt "frustrating" when she tested the Motorola Moto Z3 phone with a 5G Moto Mod during a trip to Chicago in April. "I wish I could say that using Verizon's 5G was an exciting experience, and the download speeds were beyond my wildest imagination," she said. "Unfortunately, after a long day, I can only find it confusing. It's absolutely crazy."

Although Verizon promises that those 5G users who are the first to try it out can get 3 months of YouTube TV service, as well as free Apple TV and Google Player Chrome cast services, these do not touch the essence: allowing users to experience real 5G scene applications.

For the 5G industry's most anticipated telemedicine, education, autonomous driving and other IoT (Internet of Things) smart home applications, they may still rely on 5G mobile phones. This may be the biggest revelation that Verizon has brought us.

In China, major Chinese mobile phone manufacturers have realized this very early. In view of the great efforts of Huawei, OV and other companies in 5G, Qualcomm CEO Morenkov said, "You didn't see this situation when the 4G transition started. Now these manufacturers are ambitious."