As the driving force and engine of the digital economy, 5G has been born with the vision of interconnecting everything and integrating into thousands of industries. With the continuous evolution of technology, 5G-A, as an enhanced version of the 5G network, not only further improves the network performance, but also introduces many innovative technologies and features, greatly enriching the capabilities of the 5G network, and will also play a huge role in promoting the integration of the digital economy and the real economy.
Since China started 5G commercial use in June 2019, China's 5G construction has been more than four years, and in the past four years, China's 5G network construction has been steadily promoted, the industrial chain system has continued to improve, and 5G is becoming a key driving force for the digital upgrading of personal life, the leap of industrial intelligence and the development of social intelligence. At the same time, as a representative of China's operators, China Mobile not only took the lead in building the world's largest 5G network with more than 1.94 million 5G base stations, but also continuously enhanced the innovation capabilities of the 5G technology industry in terms of technical standards, network equipment, terminal equipment, etc., expanding more than 30,000 5G industry application cases, comprehensively enabling the digitalization of social industries, expanding the breadth and depth of integrated applications, and continuously consolidating the digital foundation to boost the quality and efficiency of the manufacturing industry.
Now, we are ushering in a year of 5G-A scale rollout, and China Mobile, as one of the world's largest mobile communication operators, how will its 5G-A development be deployed? What are the implications for the industry?
Recently, during MWC24 Barcelona, Gao Tongqing, deputy general manager of China Mobile, said in an interview with Mobile World Live** that China Mobile will launch the world's largest 5G-A commercial deployment in more than 300 domestic cities this year, and at the same time release five major innovations with partners, which is an important milestone in the development of 5G-A and marks the industrialization of 5G-A.
Behind the world's largest boutique network: 5G-A is found to be "confident" in rapid advancement
As an important technological innovation, compared with 3G and 4G, 5G far exceeds the previous generations of technology in terms of network construction and user development, and the sustainable development of communication networks has shown good potential, and the rapid development of China's 5G network has also benefited from the continuous investment and innovation of operators such as China Mobile in technology research and development, network construction, and user services. China Mobile has built the world's largest 5G boutique network, providing high-quality, ubiquitous, secure and customizable connection services.
In terms of personal scenarios, 5G-A greatly expands the boundaries of personal communication services and promotes the development of the communications industry. The high interactivity and low latency of its immersive real-time communication technology enable XR services to be realized at a higher level. In the pilot applications of scenarios such as Beijing Gongti Metaverse and Shougang No. 1 Blast Furnace SOREAL Science Fiction Park, the 5G-A network has demonstrated its strong support capabilities, and the on-site 5G-A network can support dozens of XR players and users to smoothly experience immersive services such as XR games in the virtual space at the same time. This not only enhances the entertainment experience of users, but also brings new business models and growth opportunities for related industries.
For industry applications, 5G-A is also expanding the boundaries of mobile communication capabilities and promoting the development of industries. In the manufacturing sector, the continuous improvement of 5G-A deterministic network capabilities has enabled 5G technology to penetrate from auxiliary production links such as data collection and monitoring to core production links such as industrial control. This transformation not only improves the intelligence level of the manufacturing process, but also realizes the digital intelligence acceleration of the core links of the manufacturing industry. At the same time, the development of terminal lightweight capabilities has also promoted the cost reduction of equipment such as electric power, industry, advanced monitoring, and vehicle terminals, and promoted the accelerated listing and intelligent upgrading of industry terminals.
In the logistics industry, 5G-A's cellular passive IoT capability (AIoT) has revolutionized the industry. Compared with traditional RFID passive communication technology, 5G-A's AIoT technology combines passive communication with cellular networks, significantly improving the coverage of communication. This technology meets the needs of digitalization of the whole production factor, the automation of the whole process, and the intelligent management of the whole life cycle, and provides strong support for the intelligent management and upgrading of the whole life cycle of the first chain.
In addition, China Mobile has always adhered to the principle of empowering people's livelihood with technology and fulfilling the responsibilities of central enterprises, and 5G-A has also shown many achievements in helping to build an efficient and safe smart society and promoting the development of social and people's livelihood.
In terms of serving economic development, 5G-A's innovative air-ground collaborative three-dimensional networking mode provides farther, more reliable and safer communication for UAVs, which can effectively help the efficient transformation of airspace resources into economic resources.
Top 10 Innovations Released: Mature Commercial M&A Opens the First Year of 5G-A
All along, China Mobile has anchored the new positioning of "world-class information service technology innovation company" and continued to strengthen scientific and technological innovation.
Since 2021, China Mobile has been working on four aspects, aiming to comprehensively and continuously promote the development of 5G-A in terms of technical standards and industrial ecology. The first is to lead the development of communications with "integration and innovation" and stimulate the potential of industrial upgrading and development; The second is to expand the boundaries of communication with "converged applications" and accelerate the development momentum of digital intelligence transformation; The third is to win the future of communication with "open cooperation" and accumulate potential energy for ecological prosperity and development; The fourth is to explore the communication highland with "standard formulation" and control the efficiency of science and technology innovation to empower the industry.
Gao Tongqing said that the release of the top ten 5G-A innovations by China Mobile and its partners is the result of China Mobile's continuous promotion of 5G-A in the past three years.
It is reported that the top ten innovations of 5G-A are intelligent and lightweight new terminals, which greatly reduce the cost of 5G terminals; New integration of synaesthesia, 5G integration and perception of new capabilities; A new connection between heaven and earth to achieve 5G satellite communication; Immerse yourself in a new real-time experience to ensure XR service capabilities; Low-altitude coverage of new business formats, 5G opens up low-altitude economy; Intelligent endogenous new capabilities, refined user business assurance; The new ecology of passive IoT opens up the 100 billion connection of passive IOT; A new benchmark for extreme performance, with ultra-high speed and ultra-low latency experience at the same time; Endogenously determine new services, and 5G has deterministic guarantee capabilities; A new architecture of synaesthesia computing intelligence to build an infrastructure of convergence capabilities.
The release of the top ten innovations of 5G-A not only covers many key areas of 5G-A, but also fully demonstrates the huge potential and broad prospects of 5G-A from network technology to application scenarios, opens up new space for 5G development, and also indicates China Mobile's determination to promote the digital transformation and intelligent upgrading of various industries.
It is worth mentioning that Gao Tongqing's view on the deployment rhythm of 5G-A is very clear and forward-looking, and he put forward the deployment principle of "mature one, commercial one".
Gao Tongqing believes that this year is an important starting point for 5G-A commercialization, and we should first pay attention to a number of 5G-A technologies that can improve performance and reduce costs, such as the commercialization of lightweight terminal RedCap technology. It not only ensures the stability and reliability of the technology, but also lays a solid foundation for subsequent large-scale commercial use.
Three major focus points to meet the high-quality 5G-A construction
The 3GPP 5GR18 version will be frozen in the first quarter of 2024, which is also the first generation of 5G-A technical standards, which requires continuous research and innovation. China Mobile's plan to launch the world's largest commercial deployment of 5G-A in more than 300 domestic cities in 2024 not only reflects China Mobile's firm confidence in the development of 5G-A technology, but also demonstrates its leadership and responsibility in promoting industry progress.
Undoubtedly, although a number of technologies have been commercialized in 5G-A, there are still some technologies that are still in the process of technological and industrial maturity.
In this regard, facing the high-quality development of 5G-A, Gao Tongqing put forward three major focuses.
First, in terms of technology and standards, the 3GPP 5G R18 version and the R19 standard will be launched; Form a technical solution for landing deployment, and realize the commercial deployment of mature technologies as soon as possible.
Second, in terms of industrial promotion and pilot verification, relying on the collaborative innovation base and the 5G-A test network of the provincial company, the third phase of 5G-A technology trials will continue to be carried out in 2024 to accelerate the process of technology and industrial maturity.
Third, in terms of ecological construction and application demonstration, through the industry alliance and China Mobile Industry Innovation Demonstration Base, the whole process of production, education, research and application from technical research, test verification to application demonstration will be opened up, and a 5G-A application demonstration model room will be built.
In fact, since the beginning of the formulation of the standard, China Mobile has insisted on taking demand as the traction, promoting technology and product verification in parallel, testing and verifying technical solutions, pre-researching the direction of standards, cultivating industrial ecology, and promoting the application of live networks.
Starting from 2022, China Mobile has planned three phases of 5G-A technology trials for multiple industries and scenarios, such as industry, electric power, security, transportation, warehousing and logistics, as well as low-altitude, water, immersive entertainment, and large-scale gatherings. At present, China Mobile has completed the first phase of the trial and launched the second phase of the trial. Phase 2 is scheduled to be completed in June 2024, followed by a phase 3 trial.
It is foreseeable that through these three phases of technology trials, China Mobile will be able to have a deeper understanding of the application performance of 5G-A technology in different industries and scenarios, further improve and optimize the technical solutions, and at the same time, it will also lay a solid foundation for China Mobile to cultivate the 5G-A industry ecology and promote the application of the existing network in the future.