Chinese state-owned mobile carrier China Mobile has already deployed nearly 50,000 5G base stations across the country, state news agency Xinhua reported the company’s chairman Yang Jie as saying.
China Mobile, the world’s largest mobile services provider in terms of subscribers, currently provides 5G services in 50 cities, Yang said.
The executive also said that China Mobile will continue to promote technological advancement and launch more 5G applications to better meet market demand.
According to a report by China Daily, the carrier aims to end next year with a total of 70 million 5G users, with a planned investment of CNY20 billion ($2.85 billion).
Yang previously said that China Mobile plans to leverage base station sites and transmission facilities used for 4G services to deploy its 5G network cost-effectively.
The executive highlighted that the peak period for China Mobile’s investments in 5G deployment will be between 2020 and 2022.
China Mobile is working with Huawei, Nokia, Ericsson and ZTE in the deployment of its 5G network. According to a previous report published by the South China Morning Post, China Mobile has awarded half of its 5G network equipment contracts to Huawei Technologies.
China Mobile, together with rival carriers China Unicom and China Telecom, launched commercial 5G services at the end of October.
The three operators said they aim to have more than 130,000 5G base stations across China by year-end.
In June, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) officially issued licenses for the launch of commercial 5G networks in the country. Those 5G permits were granted to state-run carriers China Mobile, China Unicom, China Telecom and state-owned broadcaster China Broadcasting Network.
At the end of last year, the MIIT issued licenses for 5G trials in a number of cities across China. Commercial rollout of 5G in China was initially expected to occur during 2020. However, the decision by the government to accelerate 5G deployment will trigger investment in the Chinese market.
In September, China Telecom and China Unicom inked an agreement to cooperatively build a 5G mobile network, with the main aim of reducing costs.
Under the “co-build, co-share” deal, the carriers will work together to outline districts in 15 cities for the network construction, with their respective total scale of 4G base stations in mind.
According to the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, 5G technology is expected to create more than 8 million jobs in China by 2030.
It is forecasted that 28% of China’s mobile connections will be running on 5G networks by 2025, accounting for about one-third of all 5G connections globally, according to a previous report by the GSMA.
