China Mobile's PQC Strategy Advances BASIC6 and 6G Security Vision

China Mobile continues to demonstrate a forward-thinking approach to innovation, especially as it prepares for the security demands of future networks. Its recent white paper on post-quantum cryptographic (PQC) migration in telecommunication networks, published through GTI, outlines both the challenges and roadmap for ensuring security resilience in the quantum era. This work aligns strongly with the operator's broader BASIC6 sci-tech innovation strategy, where 6G and security sit alongside big data, AI, integration platforms and computility networks as core pillars of future readiness.

As quantum computing capabilities evolve, current cryptographic systems face a growing threat. The white paper details how quantum algorithms like Shor's and Grover's could undermine widely used encryption and authentication schemes such as RSA, ECDSA and Diffie-Hellman. While symmetric encryption can be strengthened through increased key lengths, public key systems will require fundamental change. This poses a particular concern for telecom networks, where secure identity, signalling integrity and encrypted communication are vital.

The analysis examines vulnerabilities across key network components, including the 5G core, signalling, bearer, transport and synchronisation networks. Each of these relies on a combination of cryptographic mechanisms that will need to be assessed and upgraded to support quantum-resilient algorithms. China Mobile explores how NIST-approved PQC schemes like CRYSTALS-Kyber and Dilithium can be integrated, though this shift brings practical issues such as increased key sizes, protocol field expansion and processing latency.

Migration to PQC in telecom environments is not straightforward. Beyond technical integration, there are questions of industry alignment, certificate management, hardware support and standardisation. China Mobile points out that new certificate formats must accommodate hybrid cryptography while remaining compatible with legacy systems. Moreover, real-time services, especially at the edge, may suffer from the computational overheads of post-quantum cryptographic algorithms. This makes algorithm selection critical depending on scenario requirements.

These considerations are closely connected with China Mobile's larger push towards future network architectures. Under the BASIC6 umbrella, the company is laying the groundwork for 6G systems that integrate communications, computing, intelligence and sensing. Their work includes development of testbeds, international standardisation contributions and advanced platforms like the computility network, which is already managing over 60 EFLOPS of computing capacity nationwide. With quantum computing systems, quantum-secure communication prototypes and endogenous security now in place, post-quantum cryptography is a natural continuation of this broader effort.

The operator's leadership in 6G standards within 3GPP and ITU, combined with its role in defining the first global 6G requirements and scenarios, places it in a strong position to shape how PQC becomes a core feature of next-generation mobile infrastructure. Post-quantum security is not just about reacting to a threat. It is a foundational design choice that must be embedded from the outset of 6G network development, supporting trust, resilience and regulatory compliance across use cases.

China Mobile's approach provides a model for how national carriers can combine practical migration planning with strategic innovation goals. PQC integration will require deep collaboration across the ecosystem, from chipmakers and protocol developers to equipment vendors and standards bodies. But for operators aiming to deliver world-class secure information services in the 6G era, these efforts are already becoming a competitive necessity.

This important work builds on several topics already covered in detail on the Free 6G Training Blog, including post-quantum cryptography, quantum network architecture and 6G security. As the quantum age approaches, ensuring that security evolves alongside performance and scalability is one of the most pressing challenges for operators worldwide.

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A Billion for China and China Mobile

As of September 2023 (last year), China had an estimated 750 million active 5G subscriptions. The share of the four operators, all of which have the Chinese government as a majority shareholder, is as shown in the picture above.

China Mobile, the world’s largest operator in terms of subscribers, surpassed the 1 billion subscriber mark at the end of July, according to the carrier’s latest available data. In the 5G segment, the Chinese carrier ended July with 527.9 million network customers, with a net addition of 13.7 million during the month. It ended the first half of the year with a total of 2.3 million 5G base stations, after adding 351,000 base stations in the period.

5G subscriptions explain an unproportionally low share of mobile data traffic - except for South Korea, Austria, Saudi Arabia, and China https://t.co/dJO6QUwOAx pic.twitter.com/8qelUhaplF

— Tefficient 🚥 (@tefficient) July 8, 2024

According to their latest monthly subscriber stats, China’s ‘big three’ telcos – China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom – between them chalked up more than 20 million 5G net adds in July alone.

China Mobile is the country’s 5G growth engine, notching an additional 13.7 million subs during July. It took the operator’s 5G customer base to just under 528 million, which accounts for more than half of its total mobile subscriptions of just over 1 billion: China Mobile snagged its one billionth mobile subscriber in June.

China Telecom and China Unicom report the number of ‘5G packages’ rather than active 5G subscribers (which is the statistic that China Mobile now reports). This skews upwards China’s 5G number since those signed up to a 5G package (data bundle) can’t necessarily access 5G services, either due to insufficient network coverage or the lack of a suitable smartphone.

Putting that quibble to one side, China Telecom and China Unicom reported 5G package gains of 3.1 million and 2.9 million subscribers respectively during July. At the end of the month, China Telecom had nearly 340 million on 5G packages, accounting for 81% of its total mobile subscriber base. China Unicom had 279 million 5G package subscribers at that time, which, like China Telecom, represents around 81% of all its mobile subscriptions.

Related Posts: 

• Operator Watch Blog: World's Largest Mobile Networks by Data Traffic - Q1 2024
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• Free 6G Training: Summary of 6G Activities from China
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World's Largest Mobile Networks by Data Traffic - Q1 2024

Last year, India became the most populous country in the world. India's population stood at slightly over 1.428 billion, edging past China's population of 1.425 billion people. India and China's combined population is one third that of the whole world. As a result it won't come as a surprise that the operators with most data consumption in their networks are the ones from India and China.

At the end of Q1 2024, Reliance Jio was the operator with largest mobile data traffic flow through its network. China Mobile was just behind. 

Here's an interesting stat too: The monthly usage per AirFibre (FWA) subscription is 390 GB, 30% *higher* than for a JioFiber subscription. https://t.co/MGamLJE6xm

— Tefficient 🚥 (@tefficient) April 22, 2024

As Tefficient reported, Jio says that 5G's share of traffic is 28%, the rest being 4G as it doesn't have 2G/3G network. Another interesting stat was that the monthly usage per AirFibre (FWA) subscription was 390 GB, 30% higher than for a JioFiber subscription.

You can do a comparison with Q4 2022 numbers available here.

China Telecom explains Implications of Innovative Fixed 5G (F5G) Applications

Last year, Zhang Dong, Director, Industrial Internet Innovation and Development Center, China Telecom, spoke at at Light Reading’s Leading in 5G webinar series.

He said China Telecom began trials three years ago with half a dozen early adopter clients.

The base station cost was mostly paid for by the enterprises, while China Telecom sold O&M services and applications on top including big data, AI, and so on, he said.

While we see challenges like how to ensure lower latency and higher network assurance, and deal with problems like jittering, or how to simultaneously deliver 8K HD video from eight cameras, China Telecom is still making important milestones on its 5G journey.

Zhang said that after deploying more than 1000 5G use cases, China Telecom experts have identified four key categories.

The first is using 5G to enable high-speed mobility, with applications such as autonomous driving, remote control of vehicles or remote management of ports and warehouses.

The second type is those leveraging the faster 5G uplinks and downlinks. This is mostly related to video and in the future will also include various other integrated media, like AR and VR, Zhang said.

The third type of 5G use case focuses on scenarios where people and things gather, such as transportation hubs, and places with large number of people or large objects moving around.

The fourth type is deployment of 5G in hazardous environments. For example, some working environments might expose personnel to toxic gas, loud noise or other safety hazards. 5G can play an important role in ensuring safety.

Zhang cited some of China Telecom’s collaborations in the resource and utility sectors.

One was with oil and gas giant Sinopec, which was one of the first to trial 5G because it was willing to pay for the base station rollouts and services.

Another was the Shendong Coal Group in the mining sector, which had worked with China Telecom to roll out private networks under the wells, requiring investment of over 100 million yuan ($15.6 million).

China Telecom had also partnered with Qingdao Power Grid in a project where network slicing ensured the connectivity and lower latency to support precision power distribution.

We have looked at Fixed 5G (F5G) in our blog posts here and here. During the talk, Zhang also discussed F5G. 

He highlighted that in F5G,  there's a F before 5G where this F stands for fiber connection. Fiber connections and 5G joining hands will usher in another wave of technological innovations with 5G.  Base stations already need fiber for data transmission, etc. These connections can be extended to OT industry, which would mean that the fiber connection can be used to control robots, etc. If fiber connections are deployed together with 5G, mining and other use cases in verticals will emerge in addition we know do today.

The video of his talk is embedded below:

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China Mobile Talks About Orchestration and Automation

At the ETSI NFV Event back in April, Dr. Lingli Deng, China Mobile presented a talk on "From Orchestration Towards Automation". The abstract of the talk says:

Autonomous network proposes to optimize user experience, automate management operations, and maximize resource efficiency by simplifying network architecture, encapsulating autonomous domains, and providing closed loops for business/network operation control, and clarifies the target architecture and implementation path for network intelligence.

The autonomous network puts forward two dimensions of space and time requirements for the network management system of telecom operators:

On the one hand, the hierarchical, domain, and closed-loop autonomous architecture and cross-layer business-driven interaction of autonomous driving networks require operator network management systems to achieve functional enhancements ("addition") and interface simplification ("subtraction") in the spatial dimension.

On the other hand, the introduction of AI technology in autonomous driving networks and the complexity of network management itself require operators to achieve continuous iteration and gradual improvement in the time dimension of their network management system ("spiral upward").

In this speech, we will share China Mobile's autonomous network goals, approach, related practice, and overall thinking about the obstacles we are facing and proposed way forward, especially from the perspective of industrial collaboration, and the progress and next steps of ETSI NFV related work.

In particular, as an essential part of network management plane, MANO will need to be enhanced not only with simplified intent/policy interfaces, but also providing basis for enabling a complete zero-touch close loop (including VNF configuration), as well as the DevOps mechanism for AI models and/or analytics microservices embedded with network elements

The talk is embedded below:

In the ITU News MAGAZINE last year, researchers from China Mobile Research Institute contributed an article on "A standards round-up on autonomous networks". The article provides a detailed list of specifications in various groups including ITU, 3GPP, ETSI, etc.

Quoting from the magazine:

There are discussions among standards development organizations (SDOs) about the level of autonomous capabilities in networks

The study of autonomous network levels (ANL) can provide reference and guidance to operators, vendors and other participants of the telecommunication industry for autonomous networks, standardization works and roadmap planning.

Since industrial convergence is the key for reducing the cost for any single vendor or single network operator, building an open collaboration platform for cohesively developing both a reference implementation for case-agnostic functional architecture and standardized external or internal interfaces would be the easy way for communication service providers (CSPs) to kick off and stay in the converged direction towards network autonomy.

For example, a rule-based policy engine could be one of the common functional modules to support both timed control tasks in Level 1, imperative closed loops in Level 2, and adding intent-to-rule translation modules in Levels 3 and 4.

The article starts on page number 23. You can download from here.

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• Operator Watch Blog: World's Largest Mobile Networks by Data Traffic - March 2021
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China Telecom's 5G and IoT Progress

China Telecom's 2020 results were published this week. The PDF of that is available here. Capacity Media reported:

China Telecom has reported 2020 revenues up by 4.7% on the year with earnings up 1.4%.

The company said its revenues were 393.6 billion renminbi in 2020 — equivalent to US$60.7 billion. EBITDA was 118.9 billion renminbi, said the company, equivalent to $18.3 billion.

Meanwhile the company said that “5G achieved a promising start, with 86.5 million people now subscribing to 5G packages, 24.6% of the company’s mobile customers. “The number of mobile subscribers reached 351 million with net addition of 15.45 million, and the market share expanded to 22.0%.”

The small print of the company’s revenue breakdown show that 5G customers are spending on average 65.6 renminbi ($10.11) each, compared with 44.1 renminbi ($6.79) for mobile customers as a whole.

RCR Wireless said: 

China Telecom expects to increase investments in 5G infrastructure this year with the aim of almost doubling the number of base stations in the country, the company said in its annual report.

The Chinese carrier said it has earmarked a total of CNY39.7 billion ($6.1 billion) for 5G capex, slightly up from CNY39.2 billion in 2020.

Last year, China Telecom, together with rival operator China Unicom deployed 300,000 5G sites across China and ended 2020 with a combined 380,000.

For 2021, China Telecom said it expects to reach a total of 700,000, offering full 5G coverage in all counties and in certain developed towns, rural areas, railway lines and highways.

At the end of 2020, the telco had a total mobile base of 351 million mobile subscribers, up 4.6% year-on-year. The operator added an average of 6.83 million 5G subscribers a month to end 2020 with a total of 86.5 million. China Telecom had commercially launched 5G services in late October 2019 and closed that year with 4.6 million subscribers.

In 2020, 5G subscribers generated ARPU of CNY65.60 compared with CNY44.10 for its overall user base, which experienced a decline of 3.7% year-on-year.

But the most interesting bit was on IoT as can be seen from this Tweet

China Telecom’s IoT division has (roughly) twice as many connections as Vodafone, and generates (less than) half the revenue.

— Tom Rebbeck (@tomrebbeck) March 9, 2021

Ibraheem Kasujee, IoT Analyst at Analysys Mason noted that, IoT connections reached 237.6m (+50.9% on 2019), but IoT revenue was 'only' CNY2.2 billion (USD338 million), +16.9% on 2019. Implies a monthly ARPC of < USD0.15. Tom Rebbeck, Partner at Analysys Mason noted that China Telecom’s IoT division has (roughly) twice as many connections as Vodafone, and generates (less than) half the revenue.

The annual report points out that, "IoT includes mobile data traffic, SMS, value-added services & applications related to IoT, other IoT Projects, etc."

We will have to wait and see how many of these are 2G/3G IoT vs 4G NB-IoT/LTE-M.

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China Mobile on The Next Phase of 5G: Progress, Challenges, and Opportunities

China always makes the news when it comes to the number of base stations and the vastness of the mobile network deployment. According to Tefficient, China will soon have 10 million mobile base stations. Of these, 718K are 5G equipped.

China is approaching 10 million mobile base stations. During 2020, 600k 5G base stations were built, taking the total to 718k. 330k of these 5G base stations are shared between China Telecom and China Unicom. pic.twitter.com/WSuiOgJWuT

— tefficient 🚥 (@tefficient) January 29, 2021

According to a recently posted lecture from IEEE 5G World Forum back in September, Dr. Chih-Lin I of China Mobile showed that there were 480k+ 5G capable base and the number of users that have a 5G capable phone or subscription exceeded 130 million. 

Back in April 2020, we looked at China Mobile's 5G+ network in detail here. There has been a lot of progress as over 200 5G devices were available back in October and over 400 5G application trials were conducted.

Remote surgery is one of the applications I take an exception with and have detailed it here and here. It looks like China Mobile is using 5G for a lot of medical use cases. Some of these are detailed in the pictures above and more details is available in the video below.

Finally, it is good to see that China Mobile sees 6G as Open & Smart. They are one of the founding operators of O-RAN Alliance so they definitely have a vision for open. AI is expected to play a big role in 6G networks and hence Smart.

At the IEEE 5G World Forum 2020 Virtual event, Dr. Chih-Lin I delivered her presentation embedded below. Chih-Lin I is one of the authorities driving the transformation. As China Mobile’s chief scientist, she is one of the experts helping to create a faster, greener, and healthier 5G world. You can find her complete bio here.

Her talk is embedded below.

While slides from this talk were not shared, Dr. Chih-Lin I delivered a very similar presentation to the Open Networking Foundation (ONF). The slides from that are available here and the video from that is here.

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How many 5G Cell Towers & Base Stations Worldwide?

A question I often see people ask is how many cell towers / base stations are there worldwide? Surprisingly this information is not as easy to obtain as you may think initially. We can use this chart from a Light Reading webinar as a starting point:

Many years back someone explained a rule of thumb to me. There is on an average 1 site for every 1000 subscribers. With roughly 8 billion subscribers, this will amount to 8 million sites.

Omdia statistics from above says that there are 7 million physical sites and 10 million logical sites. As there are many sites hosting infrastructure from multiple operators, the number of logical sites are more than the number of physical sites.

In addition there will be small cells mounted on lamp posts, side of the buildings, indoors, etc. that generally may not be included in the count mainly.

When it comes to base stations, there is a debate on what is included. For example on a tower hosting multiple operators, each of them will have their own Baseband Unit (BBU), so this is multiple base stations. If for an operator, there are multiple generations of technologies and within each of these generation, multiple frequencies, sectors, etc. Do they count as a single base station or multiple?

Then there are towers and masts. Wikipedia nicely explains that "The terms "mast" and "tower" are often used interchangeably. However, in structural engineering terms, a tower is a self-supporting or cantilevered structure, while a mast is held up by stays or guys."

So coming back to 5G, how many base stations have been rolled out in the major markets?

Japan

In an earlier post on NTT Docomo, we pointed out that Docomo coverage is forecast to increase from 500 base stations in 150 locations to 10,000 sites (in about 500 cities) by June 2021 and 20,000 by March 2022.

According to Tefficient, Rakuten had 5739 LTE base stations on air at the end of June. The three incumbent operators have roughly 200000 LTE base stations each.

.@Rakuten_Mobile had 5739 LTE base stations on air at the end of June. Within that coverage area, Rakuten's UN-LIMIT customers have unlimited mobile data, outside of it limited data over au's network. The three incumbent operators have roughly 200000 base stations each. pic.twitter.com/ZpZBh7pH3q

— tefficient 🚥 (@tefficient) August 11, 2020

South Korea

South Korea were the first to launch commercial 5G by all operators in the country. As of July 2020, they had 121,000 5G base stations

This should be compared to 121k 5G sites in South Korea and how many 5G sites in the US, @CTIA? #5Gleadership https://t.co/1sN8Ne2mDQ

— tefficient 🚥 (@tefficient) August 13, 2020

China

Back in December last year, Global Times reported, there are currently approximately 6 million 4G base stations worldwide, more than half of which are in China and about 300,000 in the US. Why does China have so many base stations? This is because of a nation-level project in China in 2003. The project required that more than 95 percent of remote mountainous areas should be covered with communication signals and the fees must not be higher than those in urban areas.

In an earlier post we reported, the total number of 4G base stations in the first half of 2019 was 2.71 million including a net addition of 300,000, providing robust support for the development of large volumes of data traffic business.

European 5G observatory reported that China intends to have 600,000 5G base stations by the end of 2020. According to RCR wireless, Chinese telcos have already deployed over 20,000 5G base stations in Shanghai.

According to Tefficient, China Mobile had 188k 5G base stations in June 2020. So China then had a total of 398k 5G base stations

China Mobile had 188k 5G base stations in June 2020. So China then had a total of 398k 5G base stations - assuming that China Broadcasting Network hasn't yet built any (anyhow to partner with China Mobile). https://t.co/S1KYNHgWRf

— tefficient 🚥 (@tefficient) August 13, 2020

This video from CGTN a few months back gives some good info on the Chinese 5G deployments.




There isn't information available from other countries. If available in the next few months, I may add them here.

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China Mobile Establishing "5G+" Competitive Advantages

China Mobile is the world's largest mobile operator by subscriber numbers. There is roughly a difference of around 400 million subscribers between them and Vodafone Group, next on the list. According to the latest numbers published in the Interim 2019 report that covers a period of up till June 2019, they had 935 million, of which, the total number of 4G customers reached 734 million. Tefficient reported a total of 942 million subscribers at the end of Feb 2020.

The total number of 4G base stations in the first half of 2019 was 2.71 million including a net addition of 300,000, providing robust support for the development of large volumes of data traffic business. By the end of 2019, China Mobile planned to set up more than 50,000 5G base stations in China and launch 5G commercial services in more than 50 cities.

According to the report, China Mobile is working on implementing the following comprehensive “5G+” plans:

5G+4G. We will drive 5G and 4G technology and resource-sharing, and nurture synergies between the 5G and 4G network coverage and business operations. We will leverage the 4G base station sites and transmission facilities to build out our 5G network in a cost-effective manner. Our plan for this year is to set up more than 50,000 5G base stations in China and launch 5G commercial services in more than 50 cities. At the same time, we will play a more significant role in the next phase of setting international standards for 5G (Release 16). We will coordinate industry efforts to carry out research on fundamental 5G technology in order to ensure the continued advancement of this technology.


5G+AICDE. We will assimilate emerging technologies such as AI, IoT, cloud computing, big data and edge computing into 5G in order to combine connectivity with digital services. In addition, we will build out our service capability in areas including industrial IoT designated network slicing, one-stop cloud network convergence, secure and reliable big data services and telecommunications-grade edge computing. Centred around 5G, we will build a ubiquitous digital infrastructure, launch new capabilities and applications, develop new use cases and nurture more new businesses. Our goal is to become a leading new smart city operator.

5G+Ecology. We will establish an all-encompassing 5G open ecology that nurtures a 5G system by connecting partners throughout the information and communications industry chain, key verticals, innovative powers in society, high-performing technology and research institutes, and other telecommunications operators. Through our 5G Innovation Centre, 5G Device Forerunner Initiative, 5G Industry Digital Alliance and 5G Multi-media Innovation Initiative, we will drive, with our partners, the development of 5G devices, the innovation of 5G applications and the creation of 5G premium content. In addition, we will launch the BEST commercial plan, which aims to reinforce the “Basic service”, provide premium “Enabling services” and strengthen “Specialised services” so that we can march into the “Time of 5G” with our partners.

5G+X. Building on the foundation of the three “5G+” initiatives above, we will develop a “5G+X” strategy, where “X” stands for the wider application of 5G in a plethora of industry sectors and the mass market. On the one hand, we will launch innovative and integrated 5G applications to promote digitisation across sectors such as agriculture, industry, transport, healthcare, city administration, finance and education. On the other hand, for general customers, we will launch 5G ultra high definition videos, games and ring videos to satisfy customers’ appetite for a better digital life. We have accumulated more than 60 use cases of 5G across verticals, such as smart power grids, smart factories, smart ports, autonomous driving in certain designated areas, emergency rescue missions, remote medical treatment, smart campuses and high-definition cloud-based games. The 4G era has already improved people’s lives, and the 5G era will transform our society, bringing opportunities for development that have never been possible before. 5G will become the foundation for all-encompassing smart connections. In this historic moment, we will strive to maintain our competitive advantage and set the benchmark for the global telecommunications industry. We will continue to enhance the value of China Mobile surrounding “5G+”

Dr. Chih-Lin I, China Mobile, presented '5G++ the Journey Continues' at 5G World Forum Dresden, 2019 where she paints an immersive picture of what the network looks like from 4G changing lives to 5G changing society. She further discusses the timeline and trials beyond today’s 5G environment, including China’s spectrum status, licensing, standards and the all-encompassing capabilities from entertainment to medical services to open-source architecture, that the cutting edge 5G has to offer. Some of these things may be a bit outdated but there are a lot of insights in the talk




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China Allocates Shared Spectrum for Indoor Use, CBN gets Third Spectrum for 5G Network

China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has granted licenses to China Telecom, China Unicom and China Broadcasting Network (CBN) to share 5G spectrum for indoor coverage in the latest push to commercialise the new mobile technology. The 3 operators will share the 3.3GHz to 3.4GHz band for indoor coverage. The intention is that this will reduce China Mobile's monopoly as it has already got a a big chunk of spectrum in 2.6GHz as well as 100 MHz in 4.9 GHz band.

A report in International Finance states:

China Broadcasting Network (CBN) has received approval to deploy a 5G network across 16 cities using a spectrum in 4.9GHz band. It plans to have a nationwide coverage by 2021 after it signed a deal with State Grid last year. 

CBN is a broadcasting company headquartered in China. The telecom provider’s initial deployment will cover major cities such as Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Shenzhen among 12 others. 

In last October, CNB started trialling standalone technology on the 700MHz band in Shanghai. The telecom provider is working on an investment worth $35.8 million for its 5G network. 

CBN received its commercial 5G licence in June when the country’s big three telecom operators also received the licence. The operators are China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom. 

China Mobile received a licence for 260MHz of spectrum across 2.6GHz and 4.8GHz bands. China Telecom and China Unicom each received 100MHz in 3.5MHz band — and they operate jointly for their 5G deployments. 

Mobile World Live reported yesterday that China Mobile is reaching 7 million 5G subscribers soon. Joseph Waring reported:

China Mobile, the largest operator in the world, signed up 6.7 million 5G users in the space of three months, with 74,000 base stations deployed in 50 cities by end-January, C114.net reported.

It reportedly installed 24,000 5G base stations in January.

The subscriber numbers quoted would place China Mobile as the largest 5G player in the world. In November 2019 it set the aggressive target of signing up 70 million 5G users by end-2020.

This report contains this nice picture of spectrum allocation to the operators in China, it's not up to date but still quite detailed.

(click to enlarge)

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China's Synchronized 5G Launch

As reported by Mobile World Live:

China’s three major mobile operators officially launched 5G services in parts of 50 cities, claiming the largest rollout in the world just six months after the government issued licences.

The three operations deployed about 86,000 5G base stations and expect to have more than 130,000 by year-end. Market leader China Mobile aims to install 50,000 sites by end-December, while China Unicom and China Telecom each target about 40,000.

China Unicom claimed ubiquitous 5G coverage in 14 cities and 28,000 base stations.

All three operators announced similar packages with different speed tiers. Users without a 5G device can still subscribe to the 5G plans to take advantage of the larger data allowances.

China Mobile, for example, offers five plans with two speed tiers: speed limits of 500Mb/s and 1Gb/s. Monthly prices range from CYN128 ($18.10) for 30GB (low tier) to CNY598 for 300GB (high tier).

It’s giving 30 per cent discounts to existing customers, who have subscribed for three to five years. The company said it already registered 10 million customers to 5G packages.

China Unicom, the third largest operator in the country, claimed ubiquitous coverage in 14 cities, with plans to have service in 40 cities by the end of the year.

Chen Zhaoxiong, vice minister of Industry and Information Technology (centre), kicked off the launch with representatives from the three operators at PT Expo China in Beijing today (31 October).

They’re also offering a solid 1000 yuan ($142) discount on the #Samsung Note 10+ 5G. It is one of the only high end 5G phones on the market. Could be a chance for Samsung to regain some share in a market it has pretty much lost. pic.twitter.com/gCx6nI2DCL

— Arjun Kharpal (@ArjunKharpal) October 31, 2019

Arjun Kharpal, China Technology Correspondent at CNBC pointed out in the tweet above that China Telecom has changed its app logo to “Hello 5G”.

China Mobile is selling 5G at a 30% discount to 4G – and that's just one of the reasons that #5G in China could expand far more quickly than in the US and elsewhere. https://t.co/ZRYCF1n7zM? pic.twitter.com/2A1fbBM3T3

— Mike Dano (@mikeddano) October 31, 2019

Mike Dano from Light Reading points out in his tweet that China mobile is selling 5G 30% cheaper as compared to 4G, which will simulate demand for 5G networks.

Picture Source: Dean Bubley on Twitter

The picture above shows summary of 5G Spectrum that has been allocated to the operators. Both China Telecom and China Unicom has 100MHz in the 3.5MHz band (C-band), while market leader China Mobile has 160MHz of spectrum in the 2.6GHz and another 100 MHz in 4.8GHz band. China Broadcasting Network (CBN), which was established in 2014 by the National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA) to consolidate the country’s fragmented cable-TV industry also has 100 MHz in 3.3GHz band.

Related News:

• CNBC: Race for 5G heats up: China’s next-generation networks go online for as low as $18
• Light Reading: Chinese Operators Start Selling 5G at a Big Discount
• Reuters: China's state telecoms to launch 5G services on Friday
• SCMP: China’s 5G mobile service debuts to lack of applause from customers
• Mobile World Live: China releases 5G spectrum to state-run operators

Related Posts:

• Current IMT Spectrum Allocation in China
• Tutorial on 5G Spectrum
• Non millimeter Wave (mmWave) 5G

Current IMT Spectrum Allocation in China

A nice slide summarising IMT spectrum allocation in China can be seen below.

Presentation Source


According to Mobile World Live back in December,

China’s government allocated 5G spectrum in the mid-band frequency range to the three state-owned mobile operators, preparing the way for large-scale network testing in 2019 and the launch of commercial 5G services in 2020, China Daily reported.

Both China Telecom and China Unicom received 100MHz in the 3.5MHz band (also known as the C-band), while market leader China Mobile obtained 260MHz of spectrum in the 2.6GHz and 4.8GHz bands, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology revealed.

China Unicom connects a remote village Duogai in Qinghai Province for #CaseForChange

The Qinghai Province of China is vast and daily life is defined by struggles like extreme isolation, widespread poverty and harsh climate. In the remote village Duogai, winters can last up to 8 months, and many young children at the local boarding school only see their parents twice a year.
Getting an area so inaccessible onto the digital map seems like an impossible task. In 2017, China Unicom rose to the challenge and, despite the countless problems caused by the punishing weather, successfully installed 17.5km of optical cable and constructed multiple base stations.

Xuemei Sun bravely accepts #CaseForChange’s mission to visit the school in Duogai and learn how life has changed for the teachers and students there and experiences first hand just how severe Qinghai’s climate can be. Video below.



More details here.

China Mobile’s Targeted Poverty Alleviation System

From GSMA's 2018 Mobile Industry Impact Report: Sustainable Development Goals:

China has the largest agricultural sector in the world, and for the millions of people living in rural areas, agriculture is a way of life. However, there are still more than 30 million rural people living in poverty. To combat this, the Chinese government’s "targeted poverty alleviation strategy" aims to eradicate absolute poverty for all rural residents by 2020.

Introduced at the beginning of 2016, China Mobile’s Targeted Poverty Alleviation System (TPAS) consists of two parts: a mobile poverty application and a big data management & analytics platform. Through the system, government anti-poverty staff can use smartphones to collect information on rural families in poverty (to understand their health, diet and drinking conditions) to enable the government to manage poverty alleviation work more effectively. Concurrently, information and resources from NGOs and the government is shared (via the app) among the rural population, so that people can learn about poverty alleviation policies, apply for jobs, and access vital information (such as health advice or educational opportunities). China Mobile’s TPAS also enables rural poverty families to market and sell their agricultural produce through e-commerce channels, helping them to generate an income.

Impact: To date, China Mobile’s targeted poverty alleviation platform has been applied in 60 cities and counties in 10 provinces (namely Chongqing, Hunan, Henan, Anhui, Shanxi, Liaoning, Shannxi, Yunnan, Jiangxi, Ningxia) covering 7.18 million impoverished people and serving 710,000 poverty alleviation cadres. By 2020, China Mobile aims to cover 10 million impoverished people in China, to provide intelligent tools and link thousands of welfare resources to government staff, and help the government run targeted poverty alleviation policies.

Further Reading:

• China's Approach to Reduce Poverty: Taking Targeted Measures to Lift People out of Poverty
• GSMA: 2018 Mobile Industry Impact Report: Sustainable Development Goals

APAC's 32 largest operators ranked by revenue

Source: Austin County News Online

You have probably seen the map above. It shows there are more people in this circle than outside. Its also where many huge telecom operators are located. Well, Asia-Pacific or APAC is much bigger than what you see above. See this pic below.

Source: Wirawan Winarto on Quora

Total Telecom just published a list of 32 top operators in this region by revenue. Here is the list.

Mobile In Tokyo makes a good point (tweet below) that even though Japan is roughly 1/10th of China by population, the 3 Japanese operators generate 37% of revenue in Asia.

According to this report, three Japan telcos generate 37% of revenues in Asia, just ahead of China - considering 1/10 compared population = 10x ARPU. See 'on the Road to 5G' via @totaltelecom https://t.co/S0CMSfDlPb

— Mobile in Tokyo (@Wireless_Watch) June 26, 2018

In other interesting analysis in the article:

India contributes the most operators to the Asia 32 table with five representatives, but its revenue share is just over 5%, down slightly on the previous report. As detailed in the full Global 100 report, India's telcos are experiencing more than their fair share of difficulties, with Reliance Communications and Tata Communications both pulling out of retail telecoms on the back of fierce competition from newcomer Reliance Jio Infocomm. Jio will also be a newcomer to the Global 100 in the next report. It generated revenues of 239.16 billion rupees in the year to the end of March 2018, which equates to around €3 billion and would afford it 22nd place in the current Asia-Pacific ranking and 65th in the full Global 100.

There was a newcomer to the current Asia 32 table in the form of Malaysia-based Axiata, which ranks 17th in the Asia-Pacific and 51st in the overall Global 100. There were previously just 31 representatives of the Asia-Pacific region in the Global 100.

The region's overall revenue total came in around €1 billion higher than in the previous ranking, with the Asia 32 together generating €502.3 billion. The Asia-Pacific accounted for 36% of total Global 100 revenues, down from 38% two years earlier.

You can read the complete article here.

Total Telecom's Global 100 report is available here.

In related news, according to Telecom TV:

Asia Pacific is on track to become the world’s largest 5G region by 2025, led by pioneering 5G markets such as Australia, China, Japan and South Korea, according to the latest edition of the GSMA’s Mobile Economy report. Launches of commercial 5G networks in these markets beginning next year will see the Asia region reach 675 million 5G connections by 2025, more than half of the global 5G total expected by that point. Asia’s move to state-of-the-art mobile broadband networks reflects the mobile ecosystem’s growing value to the region’s economy. According to the report, Asia’s mobile industry added $1.5 trillion in economic value last year, equivalent to 5.4 per cent of regional GDP.

The latest GSMA Mobile Economy report is available here.

The 4G explosion in China

The popularity of 4G mobile services in China continues to increase and subscriber growth shows no signs of slowing down. In fact China has built the world's largest 4G network within just four years and is aiming to add 2 million 4G base stations, mainly for townships and villages, by 2018. China began a campaign aimed at faster and more affordable Internet connection in 2015 resulting in a total of 950 million 4G network users as of the end of September 2017, according to figures from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

Served principally by three mobile network operators, China’s mobile sectors are largely divided along technological lines. China Mobile - currently the largest operator by subscribers focuses on the locally-developed TD-LTE 4G standard.  While rivals China Unicom and China Telecom have gone for a mix of TD-LTE and frequency division duplex LTE (FDD-LTE). 

According to Shang Bing, chairman of China Mobile the operator has pursued a strategy of 'Big Connectivity' and invested about CNY450 billion ($66 billion) over the last three years to build  the world’s largest 4G network. Its 4G user base reached 583 million in May 2017, with 4G penetration at 67.5 per cent. “One in four 4G users in the world is a China Mobile user.” It has deployed 1.6 million 4G base stations, or about 30 per cent of the global total, Shang said. Its 4G coverage will reach 99 per cent of the population by the end of the year, when its LTE base station count rises to 1.77 million.

China Telecom’s 4G user base doubled last year to 122 million, with LTE subscribers accounting for 57 per cent of its mobile connections and deploying 1.05 million base stations, while China Unicom’s 4G subs rose from 44.1 million at end-2015 to 104.5 million, representing 40 per cent of its customer base, with 770,000 base stations.

So why is 4G so important? Probably because it is a vital foundation for all that is to come:

"Future technologies, including 5G, the internet of things and AI (artificial intelligence) will drive society into the era of the internet of everything. The development of 4G has brought about the prosperity of mobile internet and changed people's lives," 

says  Li Zhengmao, vice-president of China Mobile. Industry pundits insist that 4G has been the greatest achievement in the national information technology sector during the past five years in rural and urban areas.But then the benefits of 4G are not limited to urban areas. Rural regions in China have also been opened up by the service. In Huanggang, Hubei province, farmers can sell their produce online through e-commerce sites, and buy crucial equipment safer and quicker through the network. China Telecom has spent 200 million yuan ($29.46 million) to roll out 1,300 base stations in Huanggang.

The decision has increased 4G coverage rates from 35 percent to 93 percent. It has also helped local farmers with vital agricultural information, as well as alleviating poverty through online education.

Even after all this progress, VoLTE is still long way away. According to a report in summer, China Mobile targets 17% VoLTE penetration this year. China Mobile group vice-president Mr.Liu Aili had said back in 2015, "VoLTE network deployment is the one of the most difficult project ever, the implementation complexity and workload is unparalleled in history"

Its not unreasonable to think that since China has the world's largest 4G market it is the  country that will lead the world in the development and utilization of 5G. 

Chinese carriers dominate global operator ranking as M&A deals shake up US market

All three Chinese mobile operators feature in the top ten in GSMA Intelligence’s latest ranking of mobile operator groups, underlying China’s status as the world’s largest mobile market.

The study ranks global operators using a model based on reported mobile connections and mobile revenue (see methodology below). China Mobile was comfortably the largest group by both measures, reaching 790.6 million mobile connections and recording annualised revenue of £66.4 billion for the period to Q2 2014. China Mobile’s two domestic rivals, China Unicom and China Telecom, are ranked third and tenth, respectively.

The remaining positions in the top ten were filled predominantly by operator groups with substantial global footprints across multiple markets, including Vodafone, Telefónica, América Móvil, Deutsche Telekom, Orange and VimpelCom.

Notes on methodology
Subsidiaries are included within a parent group as per reported consolidation. Minority holdings (less than 50 percent plus one share) are included where a group does so within its audited financial statements.

Data for connections is shown as the period-ending value, excluding customers from any subsidiaries that have been divested over the course of the year. Revenue data is annualised, such that revenue attributed to any qualifying subsidiary is included on a quarterly basis over the four quarters provided the subsidiary meets the rules for consolidation in the respective quarter.

The ranking gives equal weighting to period-ending connections and annualised mobile revenue in determining final positions. The ranking by connections and revenue is combined to give an overall ‘score’, with a lower combined score ranking higher. For example, Vodafone is ranked second by connections and fifth by revenue, giving it a combined score of 7 (2+5). This ranks the group second behind China Mobile, which scores 2 (1+1), as it the largest group by both connections and revenue. Where scores are tied, the rank by connections is used as the deciding factor.

Source

China Mobile massively increases 4G growth rate

Chinese telco drives TD-LTE market as customer numbers exceed 8 million; China Telecom still reporting subscriber losses.
China Mobile had a 4G customer base of 8.11 million at the end of May having added over 3 million new users in just one month.

The telco, the world's biggest mobile operator and a key driver of the TD-LTE 4G standard, recorded 3.31 million 4G net additions last month, 
compared with just over 2 million in April. China Mobile launched its 4G service in December.

According to the Global mobile Suppliers Association, there are 300 LTE networks in commercial operation worldwide, of which 36 run on the TDD variant.

14 of those 36 are in the Asia-Pacific region, nine in the Middle East and Africa, and eight in Europe (see chart).

"Dozens more" LTE TDD networks are either in deployment or in the planning stages, the GSA notes.

In total, China Mobile had 787.3 million customers at the end of May, up by 2.7 million on the previous month and by just over 20 million since the start of the year.

It's a different story for China Telecom though, which is still suffering customer losses.

The smallest of the three Chinese operators saw its overall customer base decline by 950,000 in May to 181.2 million; 
it has lost 4.36 million since the start of the year. The telco has had a statement on its Website for the past few months attributing the decline to increased competition as a result of the launch of LTE services in China as well as strong marketing from its rivals.

China Unicom, meanwhile, added 2.7 million customers in May to take its total base to 293.3 million.
Source.