Chinese operators have already deployed 993,000 5G base stations across the country, according to China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).
5G base stations installed by local carriers have already covered all prefecture-level cities, more than 95% of counties and 35% of towns across China.
The government also reported that more than 392 million households in China are currently connected via 5G terminals.
The ministry said that over 10,000 5G application cases have covered 22 industries and related fields of the national economy, including steel, electric power and mining.
Li Meng, vice minister of Science and Technology, said: “As China enters a new stage of development, implementing new development concepts, building a new development pattern and achieving high-quality development, sci-tech innovation are more than ever needed.”
“We are willing to continuously uphold the idea of opening up and cooperation, mutual benefit and win-win result, with more open attitudes and more pragmatic approaches, further strengthen the international cooperation of the evolution of 5G technology,” Li added.
According to recent press reports, China Broadcast Network and China Mobile have recently completed a tender to deploy 400,000 5G base stations this year, as part of the companies’ efforts to launch a shared 5G network. The contracts had been won by Huawei, ZTE, Datang, Nokia and Ericsson.
The two carriers expect this shared network to reach nationwide coverage within the next two years.
Chinese operators recorded a net addition of 43.71 million 5G subscribers in July, according to the carriers’ latest available figures.
China Mobile, the world’s largest operator in terms of subscribers, added 28.91 million 5G subscribers in July. The carrier said it ended July with 279.60 million 5G subscribers, compared to 84.05 million 5G customers in July 2020. China Mobile added a total of 114.6 million subscribers in the 5G segment since the beginning of the year.
Meanwhile, Chinese operator China Unicom said it added a total of 7.74 million 5G subscribers during July. During the first seven months of the year, the carrier added a total of 50.24 million 5G subscribers. China Unicom ended July with 121.07 million 5G subscribers.
Rival operator China Telecom added 7.06 million 5G subscribers in July to take its total 5G subscribers base to 138.21 million. The telco added 51.71 million 5G customers in the January-July period.
China is forecast to reach 739 million 5G subscribers by 2025, according to a recent study by ABI Research. This figure would represent nearly 40% of the global market share in the 5G segment.
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