The 31st China International Information and Communication Exhibition, sponsored by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, opened in Beijing on June 4. Minister of Industry and Information Technology Jin Zhuanglong introduced in his speech that China’s information and communication industry has achieved leapfrog development and built the world’s largest and leading technology network infrastructure. He said that the next step is to accelerate the cultivation of emerging industries, continue to enhance the advantages of the whole industrial chain in mobile communications, optical communications and other fields, forward-looking layout of frontier areas such as the next generation Internet, comprehensively promote the research and development of 6G technology, and seize new advantages in future development.

According to the data of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, as of the end of April, the total number of 5G base stations in China reached 2.733 million, accounting for 24.5% of the total number of mobile base stations, 5G network construction is steadily advancing, at the same time, the rapid growth of 5G users, the three basic telecommunications enterprises 5G mobile phone users reached 634 million, a net increase of 73.08 million over the end of last year, accounting for 37.1% of mobile phone users.

Achieve “5G lead”

The information communication industry is a strategic, basic and leading industry of the national economy, and plays an important supporting role in promoting economic and social development. Zhang Yunming, Vice minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said that the new generation of information and communication technologies such as 5G, artificial intelligence, and the next generation of Internet continue to develop deeply and cross-integrate, and have become a “multiplier factor” to amplify productivity, and the information and communication industry, as the main force of the development of the digital economy, has the foundation and the ability to seize a new round of strategic opportunities.

China officially issued 5G licenses in June 2019, taking the lead in realizing 5G scale application. Liu Liehong, chairman of China Unicom, said that China’s information and communication industry has achieved a leap from “1G blank, 2G follow, 3G breakthrough, 4G and run” to “5G leader”.

Dong Xin, general manager of China Mobile, introduced that China Mobile has opened a total of more than 1.6 million 5G base stations, gigabit broadband coverage of more than 300 million households, server capacity of more than 8EFLOPS, a total number of connections of more than 3 billion, led nearly 200 5G international standards, and applied for more than 4,100 patents, ranking in the first camp of global operators.

Rui Wen Ke, chairman of China Telecom, said that China Telecom and China Unicom built the world’s first and largest 5G SA to build and share high-quality network; The construction of an all-optical network has continued, and the gigabit optical network has covered more than 300 cities.

On May 17, China launched the world’s first 5G different network roaming trial commercial, marking a new stage of 5G network co-construction and sharing. Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other 14 departments jointly issued a document to deploy a new round of telecommunications infrastructure construction and sharing work. Liu Lihong said that in the next step, China Unicom will continue to promote co-construction and sharing to deepen development, further improve the coverage level of 5G network in rural and remote areas, and solidly promote universal service; Give full play to the value of private network frequency resources, and jointly promote the “5G+ industrial Internet” to accelerate the extension of the core link of enterprise production.

Improve the coverage depth and breadth

For the next development of the information communication industry, Jin Zhuanglong put forward several hopes. First, we need to optimize the layout of infrastructure, accelerate the systematic development of new information infrastructure, increase the coverage depth and breadth of 5G and gigabit optical networks, deeply promote universal telecommunications services, accelerate the development of computing infrastructure, and consolidate the new foundation for the development of the digital economy. The second is to accelerate the empowerment of information technology, accelerate the construction of 5G industry virtual private networks, further enrich and expand 5G application scenarios, deepen the integration of industrial Internet applications, vigorously promote the intelligent, green and integrated manufacturing industry, and build a new engine for high-quality development; Third, accelerate the cultivation of emerging industries, continue to strengthen the advantages of the whole industrial chain in mobile communications, optical communications and other fields, forward-looking layout of frontier areas such as the next generation Internet, comprehensively promote the research and development of 6G technology, and seize new advantages in future development; Fourth, deepen global openness and cooperation, jointly foster an open, fair, just and non-discriminatory development environment, promote the building of a community of shared future in cyberspace, and create a new environment for mutual benefit and win-win results.

Deepening the implementation of the “5G+” plan is an important aspect of China Mobile’s next work. Dong Xin said that China Mobile will promote the network to achieve everything, do its best to build a high-quality network, accelerate the coordinated development of “double gigabit”, drive and enhance the independent and controllable ability of the industrial chain and supply chain, and escort network security in an all-weather manner. In addition, we will do our best to innovate and integrate applications, accelerate the cultivation of new industries, new business forms and new models, support efficient production, enrich high-quality life, serve high-level governance, and comprehensively empower the intelligent transformation of economic and social data. Do your best to tackle key technologies, accelerate the evolution of 5G to the integration of heaven and earth, intelligent network, and synsense-integration, advance the research of 6G technology, and help enhance the international discourse power of the industry.

Liu Lihong pointed out that with the development of 5G, China Unicom is accelerating the transformation from a traditional operator to a digital technology leader, and has achieved four changes: first, it is mainly extended to the comprehensive interconnection and intelligent connection of human-machine things, and accelerate the development of the Internet of things, industrial Internet and the Internet of vehicles; The second is to upgrade the basic connection to the big connection, big computing, big data, big application, big security five main business; The third is To expand To C, To H, To B, To G based on To C, To H, to actively promote the deep integration of digital technology and the real economy; Fourth, we will shift from a market-driven development model to one that combines market-driven and innovation-driven development, and strive to improve our core competitiveness and sustainable development capabilities.

Liu Lihong said that in the next step, China Unicom will work with partners to promote the formulation of R18 standards, accelerate the development and industrialization of chips, modules, terminals and other products, accelerate the commercial process of 5G-Advanced, and further lead the innovation and development of 5G industry.