Within four square kilometres fully covered by 5G technology at an amusement park in Beijing, mobile networks can support tens of thousands of users at the same time, with extensive indoor digital systems and macrocells.
In the amusement park, there are many high-end user groups. From user traffic data, the 5G offload ratio has reached almost 50%. The number of 5G users and 5G traffic has reached a very high level. From cloud gaming, playing ultra-HD videos, to other online services, they can meet their users’ requirements and guarantee meeting the users’ needs during peak time.
Thirty-six white boxes, which are in fact 5G wireless communication base stations, are dotted around the park to guarantee communication services. The 5G network can fully satisfy 4k high-definition video and double speed play at any time and guarantee a rate of 300 to 500 megabytes per second or even higher.
The amusement park is also part of Beijing’s “5Gigaverse” network, which improves network performance and accelerates the expansion of 5G network coverage. China had rolled out 819,000 5G base stations at the end of the first quarter this year, and the number of 5G connections in the country is expected to hit 822 million by 2025.
According to a white paper released by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, the commercial use of 5G will be gradually realised in a wide variety of industries between 2021 and 2023, and industrial applications will see large-scale growth after 2023.
China’s Action Plan noted that while some 5G adoption indicators had improved—including a 200% annual growth rate of 5G users and a 35% penetration rate of 5G applications in industry—there was room for further growth in “key industries” such as media, transportation, agriculture, water conservation, energy, mining, smart city, smart education, smart health care and smart cultural tourism.
Chinese researchers, industry analysts and policymakers have connected the rollout of national 5G networks to economic planners’ aims to upgrade the nation’s manufacturing base and promote a more technologically advanced economy. As a result, the state’s development of 5G has become closely tied to national issues of development and prestige.
China’s telecommunications development strategy is based on the principle of “[simultaneously] use one generation 4G, build one generation 5G, and develop one generation 6G to ensure continuous innovation and allow China to retain the cutting-edge in both next- and next-next generation telecommunications technologies.
Despite the uncertainty over the quality of China’s prolific 6G research and development, some milestones are notable. Chinese state media recently reported the first successful connection between low-orbit broadband 6G satellites and 5G equipment on the earth’s surface.
While applications of 5G and 6G telecommunications are still being developed, the Chinese state has prioritised both technologies as a critical factor for future economic development and national competition. Progress towards commercialisation has largely been driven by state-backed actors rather than private companies, and policymakers also see achieving supremacy in these next-generation technologies as a means for improving China’s international standards-setting abilities and influence.
As reported by OpenGov Asia, China is speeding up 5G development with the construction of over 1 million 5G base stations, and it is home to 400 million 5G users nationwide. The 5G economy is in the initial stage, with booming market opportunities and great potential, both in China and globally. China, which leads the world in 5G development, has a growing demand for business-oriented 5G upgrades, covering companies and modernised factories.
To quicken the application of 5G in more sectors, one of the keys is cross-industry teamwork. China also called for more efforts to widen the use of cloud computing, big data, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other technologies in digital production, daily life and social governance. Information and communication technology is now getting increasingly intertwined with the real economy, with digital transformation accelerated in a wide range of sectors.
