China Mobile announced that a total of 360,000 5G base stations will be deployed in 2023.
A local newspaper reported that the penetration rate of 5G technology in China will reach 90% by the end of 2023. Global Times The report cited an executive at local telecommunications company China Mobile.
Bian Yannan, deputy director of China Mobile’s planning and construction department, said this penetration rate will be achieved thanks to the deployment of 360,000 5G base stations this year.
According to the report, China Mobile has already deployed a total of 1.7 million 5G base stations across Asia, with a penetration rate of over 85%.
China’s three major carriers have announced their total subscriber numbers for November 2023. This included a net increase of approximately 26 million total 5G package subscribers, increasing the total number of 5G package subscribers to approximately 1.348 billion. As of the end of November, 5G package subscribers accounted for 78.6% and 77.3% of China Mobile and China Telecom’s total mobile subscriber base, respectively.
According to previous reports, China Broadnet, China’s fourth largest 5G network operator, had a total of 20 million 5G subscribers as of the end of October. Broadnet officially launched 5G services in June 2022.
According to a previous GSMA report, the number of 5G subscribers in China is expected to reach 1 billion by 2025, and the number of 5G users will reach 1.6 billion by 2030.
The report says 5G technology will add $290 billion to China’s economy in 2030, with the benefits spreading across industries.
“With the uptake of 5G among consumers, carriers’ focus is increasingly shifting to 5G for enterprises. This will allow them to expand revenue beyond connectivity in adjacent areas such as cloud services. Opportunities arise, and Chinese operators have recently made significant progress in this area,” the GSMA report states.
According to the report, 5G will overtake 4G in 2024 and become the dominant mobile technology in China. “The dominance of 4G and 5G in China means that legacy networks are being phased out. Although most users have migrated to 4G and 5G, legacy networks continue to support various IoT services. However, some estimates suggest that China could see almost complete shutdown of legacy networks by 2025.”
According to a GSMA report, by 2030, 88% of China’s mobile connections are expected to be 5G, with the remaining 12% being 4G technology.
