China issues 5G licenses for commercial use

BEIJING, June 6 (Guangming Online) -- China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) on Thursday granted commercial licenses of 5G to China Telecom, China Mobile, China Unicom and China Broadcasting Network.

The Minister of MIIT Miao Wei said that the 5G technology enables the development of the Internet of Things, constructing high-speed, mobile, safe, and widespread information infrastructure. In the meantime, the 5G technology will accelerate the information digitalization in various industries such as industrial Internet, Internet of vehicles, and so on, which can enlarge the marketplace, bring new opportunities, and promote digital economy.

The 5G technology will bring great influences to global economy and societies. From 2020 to 2025, the economic output promoted by the commercial use of 5G is expected to be 10.6 trillion yuan, and 5G will generate more than 3 million jobs, according to a report by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology.

Moreover, The 5G technology will also bring significant changes to people’s life. Its low latency and high speed make people’s life more convenient and faster. It is constructive to many new technologies’ development and application: for example, 5G’s high speed enables the technologies of Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) which are dependent on Internet speed to be more useful and widespread. People can use VR glasses to “travel” at home through immersive experience. In addition, the Internet of Things requires the Internet and information sensing equipment to connect objects, and thus the high speed and low latency of 5G promotes the application of the Internet of Things. Also, the benefits of 5G can spread to remote or underdeveloped regions in ways such as applying long-distance medical treatments that are realized by 5G’s low latency.

The research and development of the 5G technology include the collaboration of domestic and foreign enterprises such as Nokia, Ericsson, Qualcomm, Intel, and so on. In the meantime, MIIT expressed that China always welcomes domestic and foreign enterprises to actively participate in the development and application of China’s 5G, sharing the development achievement.

Translated by Gao Xinran