Investments by China to 5G Surpasses 1 Trillion Yuan

According to People’s Daily, in the upcoming five years China plans to invest more than one trillion Yuan in 5G technology which would boost the economic output to exceed the 10 trillion Yuan mark.

The Mobile Economy Asia Pacific 2019 report by Global System for Mobile Communications Alliance (GSMA) stated that of the US$370 billion investment made by Asian mobile operators between 2018 and 2025; US$184 billion is expected from China as investment in 5G.

It further said that before the commercial launch planned for next year, 5G testing in major Chinese cities and provinces has begun. It is projected that by 2025 a third of all 5G connections globally, and 28% of China’s mobile connections will be operating on 5G.

A report issued by China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) discussing 5G’s impact revealed that while an investment surpassing 220 billion Yuan is expected from Chinese telecom operators in 2020, an expense of more than 54 billion Yuan on 5G equipment is expected to be borne by the remaining industries.

Liu Duo, president of the CAICT claimed that commercializing 5G would increase the use of information, which will boost the total economic output to 10.6 trillion Yuan from 2020 to 2025.

Yang Jie, chairman of China Mobile said that economy and society will digitally transform through 5G, as it offers high bandwidth, low delay and wide connection. He added that it will broaden interconnectivity when combined with technologies such as cloud computing, big data and artificial intelligence.

As claimed by Yang, by the end of 2019, 50,000 5G base stations would have been developed by China Mobile nationally, providing 5G commercially in over 50 cities by 2020.

More than 40 cities before year-end will have fully implemented 5G commercially, as declared by China Telecom.

Chinese investment to develop infrastructure for 5G has been $24 billion more compared to that in the US according to a Deloitte study of 2018 conducted by CNBC.

In the same duration in comparison to US, China has built 320,000 more cell sites.

To add a carrier the gear required is 35% cheaper in China than in US as projected by Deloitte, which implies that to match the wireless network capacity, a 2.67 times of China’s spending is required from the US .

Deloitte mentioned that China’s fast pace towards 5G development, has left others behind.