CHINA so far has already built more than 1.15 million 5G base stations, accounting for more than 70 percent of the global total, according to a five-year plan unveiled by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Tuesday.

Xie Cun, director of the information and communication development department at the ministry, said 5G network coverage has been achieved in urban areas of all prefecture-level cities, 97 percent of counties and 40 percent of rural towns across the country.

The 5G mobile subscriber accounts in China, numbering some 450 million, make up over 80 percent of the global total, Xie added.

By the end of 2025, China plans to have 26 5G base stations for every 10,000 people as the nation works hard to build a new digital infrastructure that is intelligent, green, safe and reliable, according to the five-year plan.

The goal, based on an estimated national population, means that the nation aims to have about 3.64 million 5G base stations by the end of 2025. In comparison, in 2020, there were only five 5G base stations for every 10,000 people in China.

Xie said the overall goal proposed in the five-year plan for the information and communication industry is to basically build a high-speed, ubiquitous, smart, and green new digital infrastructure by 2025.

The plan also proposed that the penetration rate of 5G users in China will increase from 15 percent in 2020 to 56 percent in 2021, and 80 percent of China’s administrative villages will have 5G signal accessibility.

By 2025, China’s 5G network will cover all cities and towns, as well as most villages, said the development plan.

The five-year plan also forecast that by the end of 2025, the information and communication industry will maintain an annual growth rate of about 10 percent to reach a total revenue of 4.3 trillion yuan (US$674.2 billion) in 2025. The plan also forecast that the cumulative investment in telecom infrastructure will increase from 2.5 trillion yuan in 2020 to 3.7 trillion yuan in 2025.

Widening the industrial use of 5G will also be a key focus for China. Xie said 5G has already been used in 22 industries. The application of 5G in industrial manufacturing, mining and ports is relatively mature, where 5G has been expanded from production assistance to core businesses such as equipment control and quality control. Meanwhile, a number of 5G-powered applications have also emerged in industries such as medical care, education and entertainment.

“In the next step, we will work with other parties to focus on promoting 5G applications in 15 industries that target information consumption, real economy and people’s livelihood services,” Xie said. (SD News)