Chinese operators recorded a net gain of 28.3 million 5G subscribers in January, according to the carriers’ latest available figures.
China Mobile, the world’s largest operator in terms of subscribers, added a total of 14.48 million 5G subscribers during the first month of 2022.The operator said it ended January with 401.28 million 5G subscribers, compared to 386.80 million 5G customers in December 2021.
China Mobile has added a total of 221.8 million subscribers in the 5G segment during 2021.
China Mobile’s overall mobile subscriber base at the end of January reached 961.8 million, slightly up compared to 956.9 million in the previous month.
Rival operator China Unicom said it added a total of 5.56 million 5G subscribers during January. China Unicom ended the month with 160.49 million 5G subscribers.
China Unicom reported an overall mobile base of 318.24 million subscribers at the end of January, slightly down from 317.11 million in the previous month.
Meanwhile, China Telecom added 8.26 million 5G subscribers in January to take its total 5G subscribers base to 196 million. During 2021, the telco added a total of 101.3 million 5G subscribers.
China Telecom’s overall mobile base amounted to 372.43 million subscribers at the end of last month, after adding 490,000 customers during the month.
China ended 2021 with a total of 1.43 million 5G base stations across the country, Chinese press reported citing data from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).
The ministry said that Chinese operators have deployed a total of 654,000 base stations nationwide during last year.
The 5G network now covers all prefecture-level cities, more than 98% of county-level urban areas and 80% of township-level urban areas across the country, said Zhao Zhiguo, a spokesperson for the MIIT.
Shipments of 5G smartphones last year increased by 63.5% year on year to reach 266 million units, Zhao said.
China expects to see the number of 5G users exceed 560 million by 2023, according to a government guideline released in July. By then, the 5G network is expected to be used by over 40% of personal mobile phone users, and every 10,000 people in China will enjoy more than 18 5G base stations, the guideline said.
MIIT recently unveiled plans to more than triple the number of 5G base stations over the next four years, targeting a total of 3.64 million by end-2025.
Under this plan, China aims to have 26 5G base stations for every 10,000 people by the end of 2025. In comparison, in 2020, there were five 5G base stations for every 10,000 people in China.
