China's 5G construction plan in 2021

2021 will be a critical year for 5G in China. 5G signals will basically achieve full coverage, and operators will gradually start to explore 5G commercial scenarios, hoping to open up a profit model for 5G industry applications.

With the acceleration of commercialization, the cost of base station construction will be further reduced, and 5G construction will be accelerated in 2021. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology proposed that 600,000 new 5G base stations are planned to be built in 2021. On the basis of achieving in-depth coverage of cities above the prefecture level, speed up the extension to qualified counties and towns.

As of the end of 2020, China Mobile has opened a total of 390,000 5G base stations, providing 5G services to all prefecture-level cities and some key counties across the country. In 2021, China Mobile will continue to increase investment, further strengthen coverage, and basically achieve coverage of urban areas above all counties in the country and coverage of some important areas.

China Unicom proposed to ensure that it will take about three years to complete the large-scale deployment of 5G networks, and basically achieve regional 5G network coverage in major urban areas, highways, railways, key counties and large towns. It is planned to realize the commercialization of 5G slicing nationwide and the complete withdrawal of 2G in 2021.

China Telecom's main development plan for 2021 is: business revenue will continue to grow, user scale will be further expanded, revenue structure will continue to be optimized, and corporate value will steadily increase. Its goal is to reach 100 million 5G terminals, 60 million smart home terminals, and 30 million industry terminals.

China Radio and Television plans to start the construction of a 700MHz 5G network in 2021, and strive to basically achieve national coverage of radio and television 5G by the end of 2021. It is planned that 400,000 base stations will be built and shared by the end of 2021, the coverage of administrative villages will exceed 90%, and the radio and television 5G network will be basically completed.