The user penetration rate exceeds 50% and is integrated into 71 major categories of the national economy.
5G applications penetrate into thousands of industries
With an average altitude of 5,373 meters, in Puma Jiangtang Township, southeast of Langkazi County, Shannan City, Tibet, with the help of 5G network, villagers can smoothly watch sports events by turning on their mobile phones.
Spanning nearly 3,000 kilometers, through 5G remote robots, surgical experts in Beijing can operate the robotic arm in the operating room in Hainan to successfully complete a complex surgery for the patient with almost no delay.
As of the end of 2023, the total number of base stations nationwide exceeded 3.377 million, and 5G mobile phone users reached 805 million. China has built the world's largest optical fiber and mobile broadband network, covering all prefecture-level cities, urban areas and counties. 5G applications have penetrated into thousands of industries. It has profoundly changed people's production and life.
This year’s government work report proposed that “the development of the digital economy is accelerating, and the penetration rate of 5G users exceeds 50%” and “the innovative development of the digital economy is further promoted.” What are the new developments in 5G technology, and how will it empower economic growth? The reporter conducted the interview.
The network foundation is increasingly solidified and innovation capabilities are continuously enhanced.
Traveling through the Yulong Snow Mountain and Haba Snow Mountain tunnels, through the car window, two thin and one thick black cables on the tunnel wall attracted the reporter's attention.
"Thick cables are called leaky coaxial cables. During tunnel network construction, they are laid along the tunnel wall at the height of the car windows, so that they can evenly send and receive public network signals to the trains," said Zhao Xiesong, project manager of China Tower Yunnan Branch.
The 139.7-kilometer-long Lixiang section of the Yunnan-Tibet Railway has bridges and tunnels accounting for more than 70%. China Tower, China Mobile and China Unicom jointly invested and planned simultaneously. A total of 82 new base stations, a 92.5-kilometer tunnel distribution system, and large-scale There are 2 station indoor distribution systems. Zhao Xiesong told reporters that 5G/4G signals will be covered simultaneously with the opening of the railway. Even in a tunnel group composed of 20 tunnels, the maximum download rate can reach 300Mb/s.
On Yongxing Island in Sansha, Hainan, as far as 106 kilometers away in the open sea, "full mobile signal" is no longer a new thing.
"Currently, more than 90% of the base stations that have been built can be co-constructed and shared, and the number of ports with gigabit network service capabilities reaches 23.02 million." The relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said that China has currently completed 7 batches of telecommunications universal services. The service pilot supports the construction of optical fiber networks in 130,000 administrative villages and the construction of 60,000 rural 4G base stations across the country, allowing the majority of rural areas to enjoy high-speed and stable network services.
As of now, the proportion of broadband access in 512,000 administrative villages across the country, the proportion of poverty-stricken villages in poverty-stricken villages, and the proportion of broadband access in the original deep-poverty areas of the "three districts and three states" have all reached 100%. The average download speed of administrative villages with optical fiber access exceeds 100Mb/s. Achieve the same network speed as the city.
Network infrastructure construction is becoming increasingly solid, and key 5G technologies are constantly achieving new breakthroughs.
Led by technological innovation, China's 5G technology industry has continuously enhanced its innovation capabilities in technical standards, network equipment, terminal equipment, etc. in recent years.
The global share of 5G standard essential patent declarations exceeds 42%, continuing to lead the world; mobile IoT end users account for 57.5% of the number of mobile network terminal connections, and the foundation for the Internet of Everything continues to be consolidated; lightweight 5G core network and customized base stations Waiting for commercial deployment, a number of new terminals such as 5G industrial gateways and inspection robots have been successfully developed, the world's first satellite call smartphone has been launched, and innovative capabilities such as 6G, quantum communications, and artificial intelligence have been further improved.
"In the next step, we will continue to accelerate the construction of 5G networks and promote deep mobile network coverage in key places. At the same time, we will promote the construction of 5G industry virtual private networks to provide network support for the transformation and development of the industry." The relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said, In addition, 6G technology research will be accelerated, technical trials will be carried out, technical reserves will be strengthened, and exchanges and cooperation will be deepened.
Innovative products are emerging one after another and quickly integrated into daily life
Use construction to promote use, and use is the key. In recent years, as 5G construction continues to reach a new level, 5G applications have also rapidly entered the work and life of ordinary people, making people's lives smarter, more convenient, and better.
In March, on the train bound for Shangri-La from Lijiang, Yunnan, tourists picked up their mobile phones to take pictures and share the beautiful scenery of the snow-capped mountains outside the window. “I didn’t expect that even after passing through dozens of kilometers of tunnels, the 5G signal on the train was still full, so I could watch videos and hold conference calls without any delay,” Ms. Xu said.
"I can video chat with my son with just one click, and I am reminded to take my medicine on time every day. I feel like I have a 'life butler'." Uncle Zhao, who lives in Shanghai, is the first subscriber of Shanghai Unicom's "Warm Heart Home" smart elderly care product program. , all door sensor equipment, gas alarms, etc. at home have been connected to the Internet.
Based on the 5G network, "Warm Heart Home" organically combines technologies such as big data, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things with smart elderly care scenarios: it can provide home-based elderly care services such as nursing care, alarms, and convenient calls. Functions such as pressing a button to call a car make the elderly’s lives more convenient and their families feel more at ease.
As 5G technology research and development and integration applications deepen, more and more imaginative and warm products have been launched.
Innovative businesses continue to emerge. As 5.5G is about to be put into commercial use, the maximum data download rate will increase to 10,000 Gigabits, which can support the large bandwidth, low latency and high possibility required by innovative services such as extended reality and naked-eye 3D; the maximum data upload rate will increase to 1,000 Gigabits. terabytes, it can support the comprehensive uploading of massive data to the cloud and the democratization of live broadcast.
Inclusive services are promoted in depth. At present, the Internet connection rate of primary and secondary schools across the country has reached 100%, telemedicine covers all poverty-stricken counties, and 2,577 websites and APPs commonly used by the elderly and disabled people have been upgraded to be suitable for aging and barrier-free. With the help of the wide-coverage 5G network, high-quality public service resources have been upgraded to a new level. Expand to a wider range of people.
Accelerate the expansion of application scenarios and promote industrial transformation and upgrading
An intelligent connected car has become a vivid portrayal of the rapid development of China's "5G + Industrial Internet".
In the assembly workshop of GAC Aian Intelligent Ecological Factory, after the smart skateboard carrying the car body drove into the work station, the two 7-axis robots on the left and right sides became busy——
Grab the integrated heat dissipation module on the automatic guided vehicle, scan the assembly sheet under the hood of the car body, take photos of the four bolt mounting holes on the left and right ends, accurately align the module and tighten the bolts... Originally, it was necessary to use a spreader and torque Wrench, a process operated by multiple people, can now be completed automatically in just 53 seconds. Key parameters can also be uploaded to the intelligent production system simultaneously to achieve full life cycle traceability.
"Thanks to '5G+Industrial Internet', we have not only achieved a product first-time pass rate of 98.5% and a production capacity utilization rate of up to 160%, but also can provide users with more than 20 dimensions including smart driving, rims, appearance, interiors, etc." , more than 100,000 personalized configuration combinations." Gu Huinan, general manager of GAC Aian, told reporters that at the end of last year, the smart ecological factory stood out among many new energy vehicle factories around the world and was selected as a "Lighthouse Factory" rated by the World Economic Forum.
Not only in factory manufacturing, but also in the field of vehicle-road collaboration, "5G + Industrial Internet" is also gradually approaching.
You can avoid obstacles, overtake, and avoid large vehicles without any sense of frustration, and you can flexibly go up and down ramps, and pass efficiently on the road... Not long ago, on the urban roads near Yecheng Road in Jiading District, Shanghai, the first high-speed mobile phone in China that adopted "5G + pure visual perception algorithm" was launched. Jiyue 01, a high-end intelligent driving model, is inviting customers to test drive it. "This year, the point-to-point pilot assistance (PPA) system integrated into the occupied network will cover urban roads in more than 200 cities." said Pan Yunpeng, head of Jiyue Digital Products.
In the factory workshop, relying on 5G and edge computing technology, production data from multiple locations can be collaboratively linked to further improve production efficiency; in the warehouse, based on 5G network support, operators can complete remote operations simply with the help of monitoring screens and operating handles. Precise lifting completely bids farewell to the "climbing up and down, cold in winter and hot in summer" working environment... In recent years, "5G + Industrial Internet" has accelerated its extension from production scenarios to the entire industry chain, effectively promoting the manufacturing industry to become high-end, intelligent, and Green transformation.
Behind the richer application scenarios is the continuous expansion of digital technology. Currently, 5G industry applications have been integrated into 71 of the 97 national economic categories, with more than 94,000 application cases and more than 29,000 5G industry virtual private networks. 5G applications are deeply promoted in industry, mining, electric power, ports, medical and other industries, and the number of "5G + Industrial Internet" projects exceeds 10,000. Among them, 5G applications in the medical field have extended from remote diagnosis to remote precision treatment; 5G applications in the electric power field have covered from unmanned inspections in the transportation link to "generation, transmission, transformation, distribution, and use".
"The continued growth of 5G mobile phone users and the rapid increase in 5G traffic consumption have also promoted the vigorous development of emerging businesses such as naked-eye 3D and cloud mobile phones, effectively expanding the development space of the mobile communications market." The relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said, 5G And the "dual gigabit" integrated application of Gigabit optical network continues to expand, pushing the development of my country's digital economy to a new level. At the end of 2023, my country's 5G network access traffic accounted for 47%. According to calculations by research institutions, 5G is expected to directly drive total economic output of 1.86 trillion yuan in 2023, an increase of 29% from 2022.
"Information technology is deeply integrated into all walks of life, reshaping the industrial structure, accelerating the upgrading of business formats, and becoming an important starting point for the development of new productivity." The relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said that the next step will be to cooperate with all parties in industry, academia, and research to Strengthen cross-department collaboration, continue to promote the large-scale development of 5G applications and achieve new results, effectively supporting high-quality economic and social development.
Our reporter Wang Zheng and Liu Wenxin
People's Daily Overseas Edition