China awards commercial 5G licenses to four telecom companies
June 11, 2019 Category IT & Telecom, Weekly
Official ceremony awarding four 5G commercial licenses
On June 6 the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) officially rolled out commercial 5G licenses to the three major telecom carriers – China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom – as well as state-owned China Broadcasting Network Corp. MIIT Minister Miao Wei said China welcomes foreign companies to actively participate in the construction of its 5G market and share in the benefits generated in the market. The move marks an accelerated push by China to apply 5G. Its previous plan was to commercialize the technology in 2020.
“The 5G licensing will help deepen structural reform in the telecom industry, improve the level of social and economic informatization and foster several leading companies with global competitiveness,” said China Mobile Chairman Yang Jie. China Mobile claimed its 5G services will be available in more than 40 cities by the end of September. China Telecom also said in a statement that the 5G licensing will be a key step to build the country into a cyber power. China Unicom noted it will continue welcoming foreign companies to participate in domestic 5G construction. Wang Zhiqin, Chairman of the IMT2020 (5G) Promotion Group, a team established by the Ministry to accelerate the development of 5G in China, said that “issuing a license to China Broadcasting Network Corp, the fourth 5G carrier, will help build a next-generation communication network”. China will lead the world in commercializing the super fast 5G wireless technology, equipment supplier Huawei said. The company has invested about USD2 billion in total in research
and development of 5G since 2009. ZTE Corp, another Chinese telecom gear vendor, also said in a statement that its products are ready for commercial use.
China is set to become the world’s largest 5G market by 2025, with 460 million 5G users, according to a forecast by the Global System for Mobile Communications Association, an industry group. The country’s telecom carriers are expected to spend CNY900 billion to CNY1.5 trillion in total on 5G network construction from 2020 to 2025, according to the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, as reported by the China Daily.
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