On June 6, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued business licenses for the fifth-generation mobile communication system (5G) to four domestic carriers. The Xinhua News Agency and other domestic media emphasize that "China has entered the first year of 5G commercialization." The commercialization of 5G, which is said to have a communication speed 100 times faster than the current 4G, is expected to have the effect of enhancing industrial power in a wide range of fields, such as IoT (Internet of Things) and autonomous driving.
In addition to China Mobile (China Mobile), China Unicom (China Unicom), and China Telecom (China Telecom), which are the three major telecommunications carriers in China, licenses have been issued for cable television network operations nationwide. China Broadcasting Network (China Broadcasting Television Network) was included.
Becoming the 5th country in the world to commercialize 5G amid the move to shut out Huawei
The Chinese government's original plan was to start commercial operations in 2020, but it has been pushed forward. rice field. One of the reasons behind the government's rush to commercialize 5G is that in April 2019, South Korea, the United States, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom announced the start of commercialization one after another.
In addition, as the movement to exclude Huawei, the world's top company in the number of patent applications for 5G standards, is spreading, the US government added the company and 70 related companies to the entity list on May 15. announced to add. This effectively prevents Huawei and these affiliates from sourcing US products (see May 16, 2019 and May 21, 2019 articles).
In the face of such headwinds, the Chinese government's strong enthusiasm for the penetration of the "Chinese standard" for mobile phones can be felt in the accelerated commercialization.
Will 5G-compatible smartphones become fully popular by mid-2020? Among them, China Mobile plans to start providing 5G services in more than 40 domestic cities by the end of September (Note 1). In addition, local governments have also come up with related policies one after another and are promoting their efforts (Note 2).
Companies such as Huawei, Xiaomi, and ZTE are preparing to start selling 5G-compatible smartphone terminals. The initial sales prices that have already been announced are all over 10,000 yuan (about 160,000 yen, 1 yuan = about 16 yen), but Xiang Ligang, chairman of the China Information Consumer Federation, said, "By mid-2020, 3,000 will be sold. There will likely be many handsets priced at ~5,000 yuan, and after that, models priced around 2,000 yuan will also be released,” he said (Note 3). Users can use 5G services without changing SIM cards or phone numbers by purchasing compatible terminals. In the future, it is expected that they will spread rapidly to general consumers as well.
(Note 1, Note 3) "China Economic Network" June 12, 2019.
(Note 2) See February 18, 2019 article, June 7, 2016 article, and June 19, 2019 article.
(Rei Kobayashi)
