5G stations continue to proliferate

2024-06-12 China Daily Editor: Li Yan

A technician inspects a 5G base station in Tongling, Anhui Province. (Photo by Guo Shining/Courtesy of China Daily)

Experts and officials said China leads the world in 5G base stations, users and penetration rate, significantly boosting its digital economy, and also highlighted the potential of integrating 5G terminals with AI technology for further growth.

Looking ahead, 5G development will require further efforts towards technology and application innovation in intelligent 5G, 5G broadband, 5G RedCap or capability limitations, and active adaptation, they said.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, by the end of April, China had built a total of 3.748 million 5G base stations, with the number of base stations per 10,000 people exceeding 26. More than 30,000 5G private networks for industry have also been built.

“The continuous evolution and advancement of new digital infrastructure is crucial to promoting the digitalization and intelligentization of the economy and society, and leading to high-quality development,” said Su Shaolin, director of the Beijing Municipal Communications Bureau.

The China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) estimates that over the past five years, the commercialization of 5G in China has directly generated approximately 5.6 trillion yuan ($772 billion) of economic output, and indirectly promoted approximately 14 trillion yuan of output, making significant contributions to the development of a high-quality economy and society.

Su said the added value of Beijing’s digital economy reached 1.87 trillion yuan last year, accounting for 42.9 percent of the city’s GDP, playing a major role in driving overall economic development.

Hu Jianbo, vice president of the China Central Academy of Information and Communications Technology, said 5G is boosting the development of various industries, highlighting that 5G has penetrated 74 of the 97 major sectors of the national economy, with the industrial penetration rate exceeding 76 percent.

He also said that Chinese companies have maintained the top position in the global 5G base station equipment market for five consecutive years, with a 55% global market share and sales to more than 75 countries and regions. By April, China’s 5G mobile phone shipments accounted for 50% of the global total.

Wu He, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, emphasized that innovation is key to the future development of 5G, and said that efforts will focus on intelligent 5G, 5G broadband, 5G RedCap, and active adaptation.

Wu pointed out that the integration of 5G terminals and AI technology has great potential. The AI integration of 5G terminals, including smartphones, personal computers, virtual reality devices and industrial modules, is moving towards the incorporation of large-scale models.

One example is Apple’s partnership with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, announced this week, which will power the company’s voice assistant and operating system.