Forge ahead! 2023 is an extraordinary year for the radio and television network industry, since June 2022, the radio and television system has accelerated the start of commercial use, and 2023 can be regarded as the full operation stage of radio and television 5G.
1. Strong fixed network base: The final inspection of 700MHz frequency migration is coming to an end
As we all know, through the "co-construction and sharing" cooperation between China Mobile and China Radio and Television in the past few years, the 5G network of radio and television has been deployed on a large scale in a very short time, and the huge project of 700MHz frequency migration has also been carried out in the synchronous radio and television system.
In fact, as early as the end of 2022, the Department of Radio and Television has confirmed that after two years of hard work, the overall work of frequency migration in the 700MHz frequency band has been basically completed. It is understood that this move is the world's largest, involving the largest number of terrestrial digital TV 700MHz frequency migration project, a total of 6,900 radio transmission stations across the country to participate in the frequency migration.
The main migration project has been basically completed, and in 2023, the overall acceptance project of 700MHz frequency migration will be stepped up. Zhu Yonglei, deputy director of the State Administration of Radio and Television, has put forward requirements in a special meeting in early December of that year: "Clarify the completion time of the remaining provinces one by one, accelerate the acceptance of the project, and fully complete the overall project construction task before the end of the year." According to DVBCN's understanding, many provinces have also coordinated the local radio and television provincial network companies, TV stations, China Radio and Television, China Radio and Television Design Institute, Chinese Academy of Radio and Television Sciences, Planning Institute and other units to achieve the final inspection of the regional relocation of the district.
In order to continue to promote the strengthening of the fixed network base, on the basis of the 480,000 stations in the early stage, China Mobile and China Radio and Television have further built more than 600,000 700MHz 5G base stations, and the actual dispatchable 4G 5G base stations of the radio and television network exceed 4 million. In addition, according to the principle of the co-construction and sharing agreement between the two parties, the 5G network of the two sides is fully shared and the experience is consistent, and the 4G network must be reduced to ensure single-layer continuous coverage.
It should be noted that China's radio and television core network and BOSS system are self-built, which can provide radio and television 5G boutique networks with strong coverage, sufficient capacity and excellent experience. Zeng Qingjun, deputy general manager of China Radio and Television, mentioned in the industry forum in December that China Radio and Television has completed the construction of two regions in the north and south of the core network and network cloud resource pool, 4 nodes and 31 access to the provincial user plane, and completed the construction of two regions and 3 resource pool nodes in the north and south of the IT cloud resource pool, with a total of 5000+ physical equipment deployed.
In terms of the construction of basic network platforms, China Radio and Television has launched the BOSS system and business platform, and opened the Internet public network export in 31 provinces across the country. In addition, China Radio and Television has also built five major platforms, including radio and television 5G + emerging industrial Internet, including industrial situation security management platform, AI intelligent beneficiation control platform, "welding intelligent protection" special operation supervision platform, 5G + logistics safety supervision platform, and industrial large model platform.
2. Actively demonstrate: new technologies and standardization have made new achievements
In recent years, China Radio and Television is speeding up its entry into the big stage of international authoritative standards organizations, and has begun to frequently show its prominence in the world, participating in the formulation of many international standards as the fourth largest communication operator in China and the only national radio and television network operator, and will continue to achieve some good performance in 2023.
Since 2019, China Radio and Television has been involved in 3GPP international standards, participated in the formulation of a series of international standards for 700MHz, formulated the world's first 5G low-frequency and high-bandwidth technical scheme, and promoted the adaptation and deployment of technologies such as carrier aggregation, super uplink, and multi-channel transmission and reception on 700MHz networks with large bandwidth. In 2022, we have worked with partners in the terminal industry chain to build "Super N28" terminals with enhanced 700MHz network capabilities, and developed and launched the world's first batch of "Super N28" enhanced 700MHz terminals.
In 2023, China Radio and Television will still actively bet on 5G NR broadcasting based on its main business advantages, and has made new breakthroughs at the international standard level. At the ITU Study Group 6 meeting (SG6) in March 2023, China Radio and Television submitted a revised Recommendation "Mobile Reception Multi** and Data Application Broadcasting via Handset" to include 5G NR broadcasting systems as wireless mobile TV systems. This also means that the 5G NR broadcast standard led by China Radio and Television has become the ITU international wireless mobile TV standard after becoming a 3GPP standard in 2022, marking that the two major systems of broadcasting and communication can adopt the same technical approach, so that the communication terminal has also become a TV receiver.
Then, during the ITU meeting in the fall of 2023, China Radio and Television led the drafting of a new report - "Report ITU-R BT 2526-0-field trials of terrestrial **mobile broadcasting systems". The report was successfully released by the ITU on October 24 for the submission of six papers on the 5G NR broadcast trial, which provided a reference and example for the traditional radio and television industry to transform to new technologies. It is worth mentioning that this is also the first time that a report led by Chinese in the field of wireless transmission in the broadcasting industry has been released since China restored its legal seat in the United Nations and the International Telecommunication Union in the seventies of the last century, and the main content of the report is China's experiment.
As we all know, the R18 standard will be frozen in the first half of 2024 as planned, and the core part of the "enhancements of NR multicast and broadcast services" project has basically been completed by the end of the year. Of course, China Radio and Television, as a new operator company, is also forging ahead through the accumulation of new technology talents, exploring the new technological future of 5G-A and RedCap.
In 2023, China Radio and Television United Industry Chain will complete the end-to-end test of RedCap's business-critical functions and performance in the 5G frequency band, and will continue to carry out scenario verification including laboratory, live network and industry application private network, accelerating the maturity of the industry and focusing on cultivating innovative applications.
3. Innovation scenario: New progress in the differentiated application of 5G in radio and television
With the joint efforts of radio and television network companies across the country, China Radio and Television 5G has achieved good commercial results in the past year and a half. In terms of large-scale results, in mid-October 2023, China Radio and Television's 5G users have exceeded 20 million, and the number of fixed-mobile convergence users has reached 8.7 million, basically reaching the expected 21 million user target by the end of the year. According to the global network speed report for the third quarter of 2023 released by Ookla, a well-known research institution, in the performance of 5G mobile networks in the third quarter, China Radio and Television's median 5G ** speed ranked first among the four major domestic operators, reaching 29759mbps。In addition, local radio and television networks are also actively promoting radio and television 5G Internet of Things cards, although the total number of users is small, but also in the consumer side in advance to maintain a certain brand image foundation.
In terms of exploring new applications, China Radio and Television has also joined hands with other operators and other enterprises to actively create new technology scenarios with relevant industries. On the one hand, it has also participated in the application exploration of 5G new calls, which can provide users with new real-time communication services that integrate high-definition audio** calls and data applications. China Radio and Television clarified its business plan in March and launched the pilot construction in Jiangsu; And the subsequent "517. "During the 2023 World Telecommunication and Information Society Day, we joined hands with the industry chain to jointly release the China Radio and Television version of "5G New Call*** 2023 Edition)"; During the MWC conference in Shanghai in June, the pilot first call of 5G new calls was completed, and the new call industry development cooperation initiative was released. In December, it joined the 5G New Calling Working Group.
On the other hand, it tries to create differentiated new applications based on its own advantages. As early as December 2022, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television issued the "5G Channel Technology", which was jointly formulated by more than 20 units such as China Radio and Television Group and multi-provincial radio and television network companies, which has made it clear that 5G channels are opened by radio and television broadcasting institutions, comprehensively using 5G and a new generation of information technology, through radio and television networks, the Internet, and telecommunications networks for intelligent collaborative transmission, and a new type of audio-visual service with various intelligent electronic display equipment as the receiving terminal.
In June 2023, during the 28th Shanghai TV Festival "'Magnolia Dialogue' TV Forum" - Inclusion and Co-creation, Radio and Television 5G Big Audiovisual New Model" forum, China Radio and Television Group officially signed a 5G channel strategic cooperation with Changsha Radio and Television Station, Liaoning Radio and Television Group, Shanghai Radio and Television Station, Shenzhen Radio, Film and Television Group, and Suzhou Radio and Television Station. At the same time, China Radio and Television, Shanghai TV, Oriental Cable and other units also officially released 5G channel applications such as "5G Cloud TV" and "5G Channel Broadcast Chain", providing specific sample support for the industry.
As another differentiated key application in the field of 5G mass broadcasting, China Radio and Television continues to lead the implementation of 5G NR broadcasting around the world, and the new progress of relevant standards has been specifically described in the previous article. It is reported that Zhongwei Radio and Television and China Mobile will carry out 5G NR broadcast pre-commercial use in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, and then will gradually promote the mobile phone terminal to support 5G NR broadcast function at the factory. Its cardless broadcasting capability can support receiving TV signals without inserting a SIM card, enabling users to watch TV without streaming on the mobile terminal, and the 5G NR broadcasting function does not need to be changed for hardware, only the underlying software needs to be updated (but it must be a 5G mobile phone). In addition, its emergency broadcasting capability will raise the communication support for emergencies and public safety to a new level, helping China Radio and Television to build a new social responsibility network and promote the main theme of inclusive communication.
Following the consensus of the "28 Law", China Radio and Television is also focusing on building 5G industry applications, and actively focuses on key areas of TOB HG, relying on 700MHz and 49GHz and other frequency bands and cooperate with various industries to actively expand the "circle of friends", in order to win more initiative. Including cultural private networks, power grids, education, intelligent Internet of vehicles, public safety, industry, energy, transportation, agriculture and forestry and other specific fields, 100+ benchmark cases have been created, fully empowering the digital transformation and upgrading of the industry. In terms of specific case performance, such as Zhejiang Cultural Digitalization Project, Jiangsu Emergency Broadcasting, Shaanxi Coal Mine, Guangdong Smart Agriculture, Forestry and Wind Power Project, Hubei Radio and Television 5G + Industrial Internet, Zhejiang Port Project, etc.
4. Down-to-earth: high-quality development and new responsibilities of radio and television 5G
In the market environment of high saturation of mobile networks, China Radio and Television needs to formulate unique products and promotion strategies with the new identity of new operators, and on the basis of the commercial launch of radio and television 5G in June 2022, the radio and television 5G after entering 2023 will have a variety of ** and value-added services. For example, by subdividing the government and enterprise market, online Internet market, youth market, silver market and other different customer characteristics and needs, we have further optimized and added more first-class choices, including "Youth Card", "Futu Card", "Radio and Television Huijun Card", "Lexue Card", Double Hundred**, etc., which have won wide attention and praise from users.
In addition, China Radio and Television also jointly released the China Radio and Television contract machine policy on April 27, and simultaneously launched the contract of star models**, and reached cooperation with eight major mobile phone terminal brand manufacturers in advance, the first batch of contract machine brands include vivo, iqoo, OPPO, Lenovo, ZTE, Honor, Apple, Samsung, etc., all over the country have also followed up China Radio and Television 5G contract machine sales in this year, and continue to attract new and old customers. Based on the resource advantages of the local cultural radio and television system, it can also be supplemented by comprehensive support in terms of joint rights and interests, so that many local radio and television can smoothly open up more high-quality customer markets, and provide resources and power guarantee for sustainable development.
China Radio and Television also adheres to the development mode of paying equal attention to quantity and quality, focusing on establishing a good brand image, actively serving customer groups with heart, and saving a reputation foundation for subsequent stable development. In mid-2023, China Radio and Television relies on a professional third-party marketing and promotion team to plan and implement activity plans appropriately and effectively, including important holidays, large-scale events, etc., which can maintain professional publicity and distribution, and to a certain extent, rely on authoritative and professional vertical resources to build momentum for positive publicity.
In the same track as other operators, it is more necessary to build a new service support system, and focus on cultivating and forging a professional customer service team group, and this year, the national radio and television network has also formulated and improved the customer service guidance manual according to the unified coordination of China Radio and Television and the headquarters, and can continue to increase efforts to carry out regular training. All localities have also combined the characteristics of the regional market and the characteristics of competitors' competing products, combined with the advantages and disadvantages to clarify the phased user development indicators, and through the incentive mechanisms such as full marketing, rewards and punishments, etc., they have prepared for the rapid accumulation of radio and television 5G users.
In the past year, China Radio and Television has carried out large-scale mobilizations such as radio and television services into the community, and actively promoted the formal service capabilities of radio and television with practical actions by taking advantage of the comprehensive rectification of TV "nesting dolls" charging and complex operation of the whole radio and television system, and then relying on the "cable + 5G" two-wheel drive to achieve the great promotion of integrated business. In addition, in the later stage, the completion and launch of radio and television fixed-line voice services focused on the development strategy of "replacing solidity with migration and promoting migration with solidity".
Adhering to the mission of state-owned enterprises, China Radio and Television also continues to give full play to its own advantages, strive to solve the problem of network use in rural areas, contribute to rural information construction and rural revitalization, and explore the use of 700MHz to carry out universal telecommunications services. In addition, in terms of anti-wire fraud publicity, China Radio and Television has consciously played a role, actively carried out anti-wire fraud propaganda work with the public security law and the news **, and thoroughly implemented the "Anti-Telecom Network Fraud Law", and established strict number card control rules within the system to eliminate the possibility of illegal card opening services from the source.
Conclusion: The future can be expected to be a new radio and television
Overall, 2023, as the full operation stage of China Radio and Television's 5G, its large-scale results are quite remarkable, which is its most outstanding performance. In a year and a half, it has gained more than 20 million 5G mobile customers, expanded the margin of "circle of friends" more extensively, and achieved closer collaboration with the upstream and downstream of various industries.
In terms of network infrastructure construction, platform construction, operation and maintenance, with the co-construction and sharing support of China Mobile and other multi-level resource collaboration, the deep coverage of the 700MHz network continues to be extended, and the final inspection of frequency migration has been put in place one after another, which has also laid a solid foundation for the network stability of radio and television 5G.
As a new operator from scratch, compared with the other three operators' decades of basic network layout, it is not easy for China Radio and Television to achieve 5G mobile communication network coverage and operation and maintenance in just two or three years, and it is destined to face various foreseeable and complex systemic challenges and problems in the subsequent competition.
With the determination of the centralized procurement scale of 57 million 5G standard ordinary USIM cards and 8.8 million various Internet of Things cards of China Radio and Television at the end of 2024, its prospects for the future are still relatively optimistic, and Song Qizhu, chairman of China Radio and Television Network Group, in February of that year, Barcelona, Spain, "develop 50 million mobile network users in 3 years" solemn declaration is also coming into reality.