In 2016, China had 600 million 4G users and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology began discussing 5G licenses

On December 24, Minister of Industry and Information Technology Miao Wei said today that in 2016 the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will organize the implementation of the three-network integration promotion plan, carry out 5G technology trials and preliminary research on the issuance of commercial licenses, and actively participate in the formulation of international standards.

4G is basically mature. Miao Wei said that in 2016, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology basically achieved full coverage of fiber optic networks in all cities with districts, the proportion of high-speed broadband users above 20M exceeded 50%, the number of 4G users reached 600 million, and the backbone network interconnection bandwidth was expanded by another 500G.

Miao Wei introduced that this year the national average Internet access speed has increased by 1.7 times compared with 2014, and the network bandwidth has expanded by 612G. As of the end of October, the average tariff levels of fixed broadband and mobile traffic have dropped by more than 50% and 39% respectively. It is estimated that the number of 4G users will exceed 380 million and the number of IPTV users will exceed 45 million throughout the year.

The work plan for 2016 is to provide broadband access to 10,000 administrative villages and fiber-optic upgrades to 20,000 administrative villages; introduce a formal commercial policy for mobile communications resale business; promote the orderly development of the industrial Internet; standardize the establishment and use of radio stations, and crack down on illegal station establishment activities such as "fake base stations", "black broadcasts", and satellite TV jammers.

Earlier, at the Beijing Communications Exhibition, Vice Premier Ma Kai asked China Mobile CEO Li Yue: "Can China play a bigger role in the 5G field?" This has once again made 5G the focus of the industry. 4G has not yet been popularized in China, so what changes can 5G bring to our lives?

Huawei's rotating CEO Xu Zhijun said that 5G will be commercially available in 2020. Unlike 4G, 3G, and 2G, high speed is the biggest feature of 5G. Its network transmission rate will reach 10GMpbs, which will be 100 times the peak of 4G. This means that in a 5G network environment, an ultra-high-definition movie can be downloaded in 1 second.

From the user's perspective, the requirements for Internet speed are getting higher and higher. The rapid development of 4G and wired broadband proves that users have a strong demand for traffic and speed. Some analysts say that in the 5G era, all kinds of Internet applications you use at home can be easily implemented on mobile terminals in the 5G era with a better experience. For example, you can watch ultra-high-definition (4K) videos anytime, anywhere, hold 4K video conferences anytime, anywhere, and download at high speed at will, etc. (maybe you won't need to download at that time)

Internationally, in February 2013, the European Union announced that it would allocate 50 million euros to accelerate the development of 5G mobile technology, planning to launch mature standards by 2020. Japanese operator NTT DoCoMo said in October 2013 that it was considering commercializing 5G before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.