Viewpoint:
The world’s largest service provider in terms of network scale, number of subscribers and revenues, China Mobile has taken a leadership position in the evolving 5G-A (abbreviation of 5G-Advanced) space. It plans to focus on a three-pronged strategy to accelerate the development of the 5G-A ecosystem.
The first part of the three-pronged strategy is to work on 5G-A innovation to develop cutting-edge technology. Second, to jointly promote a mature 5G-A industry value chain to encourage collaboration. Lastly, to jointly create innovative 5G-A business models to fast-track commercial success. China Mobile’s Executive Vice President, Gao Tongqing, elaborated on the service provider’s strategy during a recent event.
The service provider is all set to emerge as the first service provider to launch commercial 5G-A services and aims to bring the services to 300 cities by the end of this year. By accelerating the development of the 5G-A ecosystem, China Mobile will play a crucial role in the country’s efforts to build a Digital China.
China Mobile’s commitment to 5G-A is sure to inspire other telcos to adopt and promote the technology. The service provider announced plans to develop over 20 million 5G-A device users and more than 20 million phone models this year. China Mobile also plans to create 100 benchmark 5G-A industry applications within a year to speed up the development and deployment of 5G-A.
It will also offer 5G-A users improved speeds, tiered experience assurance, and multi-metric charging models. China Mobile’s commitment to 5G-A will play a critical role in building global momentum for the technology.
Compelling features of 5G-A
China Mobile’s thrust on 5G-A is based on the advanced features of the technology. 5G-A is a critical phase in 5G’s evolution towards 6G, which provides better speeds, more connections, and significantly lower latency than 5G.
By incorporating new-age technologies like integrated communications, computing, and intelligence, and space-air-ground integration, 5G-A expands the boundaries of 5G capabilities to take our digital lives to the next level and enables the intelligent digital transformation of enterprises.
There are some crucial features of 5G-A that make it a compelling technology for the telcos:
- Greater Speeds: 5G-A offers improved peak rates of 10 times more than that of 5G.
- Improved Services: With 5G-A, the end users will have access to tiered key service assurance that meets the communication service requirements of specific forms or customer groups.
- Innovative Products: 5G-A enables accelerated real-time 3D rendering, game loading and cloud collaboration, which is known to improve the performance of 5G New Calling, cloud phones and cloud computers.
- Massive Connections: Passive IoT technology enables a transformation from single-point communications to ultra-long-distance and ultra-large-scale passive connections of things, meeting customers’ requirements for efficient management of modern assets.
- Improved Control: 5G-A’s deterministic networks ensure highly reliable and low-latency transmission of key data, meeting customer needs for superior network performance that supports precision control and collaborative operations.
These capabilities make it imperative for the telcos across all geographies to fast-track their plans to deploy 5G-A so they are able to delight their enterprise and retail customers by bringing innovative use cases.
China Mobile’s strategies to accelerate the 5G-A ecosystem
China Mobile has emerged as a global technology leader and innovator. The operator has taken several initiatives to boost innovation in 5G-A, including leading the formulation of 60 international 5G-A standards.
A crucial component of the development of 5G-A is to collaborate with several partners to build a vibrant ecosystem. To this end, the service provider is partnering with several industry partners. It has established the 5G-A Innovation Industry Alliance and Glasses-free 3D Industry Alliance. These collaborations have led to the development of several glasses-free 3D devices, including mobile phones, tablets, car screens, laptop PCs, and monitors, as well as many more achievements in content applications, technical platforms, and ecosystem capabilities. The service provider plans to focus on many more such collaborations to develop innovative 5G-A applications and services.
To enhance the adoption of 5G-A, China Mobile has created showcase service centers where end users can experience innovative 5G-A applications and use cases. The service provider is also offering exciting value propositions to the users to explore 5G-A. For instance, China Mobile’s customers can apply for commercial 5G-A gift packages free of charge through its app to join the experience program. Around 10,000 users can experience 5G-A as part of this initiative.
In closing
The last two to three years have seen China Mobile transform into a true technology leader. Over the coming years, China Mobile will continue to maintain its momentum and take several significant and crucial steps to advance the development of the 5G-A ecosystem in China and other geographies
