(Economic Observation) China's unabated 5G construction in 2021 is expected to usher in a "replacement wave"

　　China News Service, Beijing, January 23 (Reporter Liu Yuying) As the 2020 epidemic delays global 5G construction, China's 5G construction is still unabated.

In 2021, China's 5G construction will continue to play an active role in stabilizing investment and promoting consumption.

　　According to the 2020 Communications Industry Statistics Bulletin issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on the 22nd, the construction of 5G networks in 2020 is progressing steadily. According to the principle of moderate advancement, more than 600,000 new 5G base stations will be built, and more than 718,000 5G base stations have been opened. 5G The network has covered cities above prefecture level and key counties and cities nationwide.

　　China's 5G construction has led the world.

According to statistics from the Global Association for Mobile Communications Systems, the scale of China's 5G infrastructure is by far the largest in the world, and China's 5G connections account for more than 75% of the world.

　　Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China has made it clear that in 2021, it will advance the construction and application of 5G networks in an orderly manner, accelerate 5G coverage in major cities, promote joint construction and sharing, and build more than 600,000 5G base stations.

　　Compared with 2020, is this goal faster or slower?

At the beginning of 2020, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology proposed to build and open 600,000 5G base stations by the end of the year. After deducting the 130,000 5G base stations that have been built at the end of 2019, the annual goal is to add about 470,000 base stations and actually complete 580,000 base stations.

Compared with 2020, the construction intensity will remain stable in 2021, with a slight increase.

　　With the target of 600,000 base stations, 5G investment is making steady progress.

According to data from the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, in 2020, telecommunications companies will accelerate 5G network co-construction and sharing and commercial application transformation, and complete fixed asset investment of 373.07 billion yuan (RMB, the same below) throughout the year, a year-on-year increase of 9.9%.

　　In 2021, China's 5G investment is likely to grow.

The "5G Development Outlook 2021 White Paper" released by CCID Think Tank predicts that the four major telecom operators will continue to increase investment in 5G networks in 2021, which is expected to be 1.5 to 2 times that in 2020.

　　Telecom operators will continue to expand 5G coverage in 2021.

China Mobile will basically achieve good 5G coverage in cities, counties and some key towns across the country in 2021.

Wang Xiaochu, chairman of China Unicom, said that it will take about three years to complete the large-scale deployment of 5G networks and basically achieve regional 5G network coverage in major urban areas, highways, railways, key counties and large towns.

　　The state and local governments also support the construction of 5G infrastructure, and some provinces have issued 5G construction plans for 2020-2022.

CCID Think Tank predicts that the construction of 5G base stations will reach a climax in 2022, and the trend of steady progress will be maintained in 2021.

　　At the current construction speed, China's 5G mobile phone market is expected to usher in a blowout in 2021.

In 2020, 5G mobile phone shipments in the Chinese market will reach 163 million units.

Many organizations estimate that the global 5G mobile phone shipments will be about 200 million in 2020.

This also means that China is currently the world's largest 5G mobile phone market.

　　Qualcomm believes that 5G mobile phones in the Chinese market have begun to enter the low- and medium-priced range of 1,000 yuan to 3,000 yuan in large quantities, which will promote the further expansion of the 5G mobile phone market.

　　Chinese consumers are also one of the consumer groups with the strongest willingness to upgrade to 5G in the world.

The 2020 survey on digital consumer trends by the Global Association for Mobile Communications Systems think tank found that 62% of Chinese consumers said they plan to upgrade to 5G packages in 2020, which is an increase of 12% over 2019.

　　China Mobile predicts that by the end of 2021, the number of in-network 5G package users will exceed 150 million, and 5G mobile phone users will exceed 100 million.

There are nearly 300 million target users in the network replacement cycle, and the goal is to achieve 200 million new 5G mobile phones in the network in 2021.

　　Telecom industry observer Zhao Yu believes that under the current construction speed, the speed of 5G replacement in 2021 will not slow down and will increase in the second quarter. It is conservatively estimated that the number of 5G connections including mobile phones will reach 450 million by the end of 2021.

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