It has only been commercially available for one year, but now my country’s 5G users have grown from scratch to 240 million, ranking first in the world. Reporters learned from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology on December 25 that since the 5G mobile phone market accounted for only 0.2% last year, the domestic 5G mobile phone shipments accounted for nearly 70% in November this year. The mainstream mobile phone market has completed the transition from 4G to 5G. transition.

However, it is not all sunshine that comes with 5G, and its bottlenecks have also appeared early. Restricted by factors such as supporting technology, equipment, and ease of use, the development of personal applications lags behind, making most people still not "cold" about 5G. When will more consumer-level personal applications that are “visible, tangible, and capable of communication” emerge? This is not only the only way to accelerate the development of 5G new infrastructure, but also a must-answer question in front of the industry.

The implementation of the R16 standard makes 5G more usable

It has been commercialized for one year. The latest version of the 5G R16 standard has been officially implemented this year. The R17 standard has been approved and can be launched as soon as next year. . 5G is showing its vigorous vitality under the opportunity of new infrastructure policies.

The new standard has made the 5G signal "stronger", autonomous driving and telemedicine more responsive, and 5G mobile phone users are expected to get rid of battery anxiety... The evolution of the 5G standard has also made it from "usable" ” becomes “easy to use”.

Chinese companies are focusing on demonstrating my country's technological strength. The three major operators have jointly led the formulation of more than 30 5G specific technical standards, involving a series of key standards such as mobility enhancement and super uplink core standards. field, demonstrating my country’s right to speak in the cutting-edge fields of science and technology.

Zhang Zhonghao, director of Wireless Room 4 of China Unicom Network Research Institute, explained that the latency supported by the R15 standard is about 10 milliseconds, and the R16 standard reduces it to about 3 milliseconds, which is the response speed of systems such as autonomous driving and telemedicine. More responsive.

In December this year, Beijing issued the first batch of five unmanned road test notices. This was the first time that Beijing allowed test subjects to conduct unmanned autonomous driving tests on public roads. This is due to the implementation of the R16 standard.

“The R16 standard can also better support large-scale antennas and multi-antenna collaboration.” Zhang Zhonghao said that in the future, everyone’s intuitive feeling is that 5G signals are “becoming stronger.”

Almost all mobile phone users have worried about battery life. "The R16 standard is making mobile phones more power-saving. It can automatically put mobile phones into a semi-sleep state during non-busy business hours to save power." said Xie Fang, chief researcher of China Mobile Research Institute.

More than 240 million 5G users have taken root in research and development

In addition to participating in the formulation of 5G standards, Chinese communications companies have stood at the commanding heights of global high-tech competition and become leaders and promoters of 5G development. who.

Only by taking root downward can we grow upward. Strengthening technology research and development is the fundamental reason for Chinese companies to become increasingly powerful in the 5G field. Huawei's R&D investment in 2019 reached 131.7 billion yuan, and its number of 5G patents has exceeded 6,300.

In fact, Chinese communications companies are occupying more technological high ground. In the past three years, ZTE's average annual R&D investment has exceeded 12 billion yuan. The annual R&D investment of vivo, OPPO and Xiaomi is also higher than 10 billion yuan, which has become the support for ensuring the technological leadership of Chinese companies.

The relevant person in charge of ZTE told reporters that as of now, its number of 5G patents has exceeded 6,500, ranking first in the world. In the field of chips that continues to be suppressed by foreign countries, ZTE now has more than 4,100 chip patents and has achieved independent research and development and design of more than 100 types of chips, covering all key products of communication networks. Currently, ZTE has secured 55 5G commercial contracts around the world and has launched 5G cooperation with more than 90 operators around the world.

“As of November this year, vivo has applied for more than 2,000 5G patents.” The relevant person in charge of vivo told reporters.

Building a solid technical foundation can lead to rapid development of 5G. The relevant person in charge of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology also disclosed to reporters that my country has now opened a total of more than 700,000 5G base stations. Since the beginning of this year, a total of 144 million 5G mobile phones have been shipped, accounting for 51.4% of total shipments, becoming the absolute mainstream.

“As of December 20 this year, the total number of 5G users in my country will be approximately 240 million.” The person in charge of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology also said.

The "White Paper on China's 5G Development and Economic and Social Impact" released by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology shows that this year 5G will directly drive a total economic output of 810.9 billion yuan and indirectly drive a total output of 2.1 trillion yuan.

5G consumer applications are still scarce

It is not all sunshine that comes with 5G. Its bottlenecks have also emerged early. Some applications have a narrow audience, and 4G applications such as the Internet of Things have It can also be realized in the network environment, and the wait for popular applications is becoming highlighted, which shows the lagging development of 5G personal applications.

Unless they suffer from a serious illness, ordinary people obviously have no chance of remote surgery. As for VR cinemas, AR games, and 8K videos, their equipment penetration rates are still extremely low. However, areas such as 5G smart parking, autonomous driving and unmanned delivery are still in the technological exploration stage. I really can’t think of any applications that are unique to 5G, and this is a common feeling among many people.

“A set of advanced lidar costs more than 100,000 yuan, which is almost the same as the price of a car. For 5G autonomous vehicles to be widely implemented, related technologies need to make breakthroughs first.” Professor from the School of Vehicles and Transportation, Tsinghua University Yang Diange told reporters.

In addition to faster download speeds, 5G and 4G are also indistinguishable in daily use experience. Obviously, constraints such as supporting technology and equipment make 5G still "applauded but not popular" to a certain extent.

Data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology show that there are still more than 1.2 billion domestic 4G users. Faced with 5G package prices that often start at 100 yuan, many people still have no reason to choose the expensive one instead of the one that is sufficient.

In addition to breaking through technical difficulties, Qin Fei, director of the vivo Communication Research Institute, also said that 5G will become a trend due to the increase in speed and traffic, and rich media will become a trend. 5G personal applications must also focus on fun and ease of use. point.

Currently, it is widely predicted that 5G Messaging, jointly created by the three major operators, is the first rich media application for individuals in the 5G era and is expected to become a hit application after its debut.

Obviously, only by the emergence of more 5G personal applications that are “visible, tangible, and communicative” so that everyone can truly feel the “rhythm” of 5G can the update of 5G be accelerated again.