Commercial 5G licences set for issue 
2019-06-04
CHINA will issue commercial 5G licences “in the near future,” the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced yesterday.
5G services offer connection speeds 20 to 50 times faster than current mobile networks.
Direct investment will hit 1 trillion yuan (US$147 million).
China’s 5G industry has built a competitive edge by combining independent innovation and open cooperation, the MIIT said.
It added that 5G standards are unified, international standards jointly established by global industry players.
China now owns more than 30 percent of the standard essential patents for the technology.
Nokia, Ericsson, Qualcomm and Intel have carried out research and tests in China to share China’s achievements, and China’s 5G is ready for commercial use thanks to the joint efforts from various parties, according to the MIIT.
Telecommunications equipment shares surged on the stock market with the news.
ZTE Corp, China’s biggest public telecommunications equipment maker, was up 5.32 percent yesterday, compared with a 0.74 percent drop of the Shenzhen index overall.
Chinese mobile carriers are expected to invest 1.2 trillion yuan in 5G by 2025, according to Nomura.
China, as always, welcomes enterprises at home and abroad to actively participate in the building, application and promotion of its 5G network and share the sector’s development dividends, the MIIT said.
