China Broadcasting Network Co. was established this week in Beijing, becoming the country’s fourth mobile operator, with a registered capital of CNY101.2 billion ($15.1 billion), Chinese press reported.
China Broadcasting Network will provide 5G services in partnership with China Mobile, and is also expected to offer 4G services in the future.
China Broadcasting Network’s five largest shareholders are China Broadcasting Network Corporation, with a 51% stake, State Grid Information & Telecommunication, Alibaba Venture Capital Management, Guangdong Radio Television Network and Beijing All Media and Culture.
In June 2019, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology granted commercial 5G licenses to the country’s three major operators China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom, as well as to China Broadcasting Network.
China Broadcasting Network currently has 80 megahertz of spectrum in the 700 MHz band and 100 megahertz in the 4.9 GHz band.
China Broadcasting Network has committed to invest CNY250 million to launch services in 16 cities across China. In May 2020, the company announced plans to deploy a nationwide 700 MHz 5G network in cooperation with China Mobile.
That agreement will enable China Mobile to improve its coverage using fewer base stations than with its 2.6 GHz network, particularly in rural regions across China.
Under the terms of the agreement, the operator will have access to China Mobile’s 2.6 GHz network and will also receive guidance and investment from the mobile operator. China Mobile will share its 2.6 GHz network on a paid basis, with China Broadcasting Network able to access its 2G, 4G and 5G infrastructure prior to the launch of the 700 MHz network.
In March 2020, the operator’s technical proposal of large-bandwidth 2×30-megahertz channels at 700 MHz has been adopted by 3GPP and enlisted in global 5G standards, making it the world’s first global 5G standard for large-bandwidth 5G low-band (sub-1GHz) spectrum and setting a new benchmark for the utilization of global 5G low-band spectrum resources.
China Broadcasting Network is the sole network operator in China authorized by the government to operate nationwide network providing cable TV, mobile, fixed broadband, satellite communication services as well as providing public safety services.
The Chinese government has been encouraging 5G partnerships in order to boost efficiency and accelerated network rollouts. In September last year, China Telecom and China Unicom had 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.
Chinese telcos have already deployed 600,000 5G base stations across the country, while cities such as Shenzhen and Beijing are already fully covered by 5G technology.
