On February 21, China Mobile (600941, SH), China Telecom Corporation Limited(601728) (601728, SH) and China United Network Communications Limited(600050) (600050, SH) released the operation data of January 2022.
The reporter of the daily economic news noted that compared with the end of last year, the number of 5g users of the three operators increased in January this year. Among them, the number of 5g package customers of China Mobile exceeded 400 million, reaching about 401 million.
In addition, many analysts believe that 5g has laid the foundation for the metauniverse, and the requirements of the metauniverse for computing power and communication speed will in turn continue to drive 5g growth.
5g users continue to grow
According to the announcement of China Mobile, by the end of January this year, the total number of its mobile business customers was about 960 million, including about 401 million 5g package customers. At the end of last year, China Mobile had about 387 million 5g package customers
Image Source: screenshot of China mobile announcement
According to the China Telecom Corporation Limited(601728) announcement, as of the end of January, there were about 380 million mobile users, including about 196 million 5g package users and 188 million 5g package users at the end of last year.
According to China United Network Communications Limited(600050) announcement, as of the end of January, the cumulative number of mobile billing users reached about 318 million, of which the cumulative number of 5g package users reached about 160 million, and the net increase of 5g package users in China United Network Communications Limited(600050) in January this year was 5.568 million.
The reporter of the daily economic news noted that in January this year, 5g users of the three major operators continued to grow, continuing the growth trend of 5g industry last year.
According to the statistical bulletin of communication industry in 2021 issued by the Ministry of industry and information technology, by the end of last year, China had 355 million 5g mobile phone users.
In 2021, 5g applications also showed a trend of blooming everywhere. “There are more than 10000 application innovation cases in 5g industry, covering more than 20 national economic industries such as industry and medical treatment. The application links penetrate from the production auxiliary links to the core links, and the typical application scenario of ‘5g + industrial Internet’ gradually evolves to large-scale replication.” The Ministry of industry and information technology said in the analysis.
According to the data of the Ministry of industry and information technology, by the end of 2021, China had built and opened 1.425 million 5g base stations, built the world’s largest 5g network, covered all prefecture level cities and districts, more than 98% of County cities and 80% of township towns, and gradually promoted to rural areas with conditions and needs. The total number of 5g base stations in China accounts for more than 60% of the world; The number of 5g base stations per 10000 people reached 10.1, nearly double that at the end of last year. In the whole year, 5g investment was 184.9 billion yuan, accounting for 45.6% of Telecom fixed asset investment.
Earlier, investors asked about China Mobile’s 5g capital expenditure plan, China Mobile said: “it is expected that the investment peak will be from 2020 to 2022. The company’s capital expenditure will reach 180.6 billion yuan in 2020 and 183.6 billion yuan will be disclosed in early 2021. The capital expenditure plan for 2022 is still being formulated. The company will reasonably plan its network investment by taking into account factors such as network layout, customer demand and return on investment. The overall capital expenditure, including 5g investment, will not increase significantly.”
Metauniverse continues to detonate 5g?
In the recent capital market, the concept of meta universe is hot, and many investors are full of expectations for the industrial changes that meta universe will bring.
The business model research center of HSBC Business School of Peking University and the yuan universe Research Institute of Anxin securities believe that Yuan universe 2022 – accumulated power (hereinafter referred to as the report) will bring a new infrastructure, and 5g is the foundation of Yuan universe. “Metauniverse has put forward higher requirements for network bandwidth. 5g is a comprehensive innovation of the existing mobile communication system. It is the basis for the great development of new technologies such as artificial intelligence and cloud computing in the future. It will provide a high-speed and low delay data transmission channel for metauniverse,” the report said
At the same time, the report of the cooperation between the above two research institutions also believes that: “the meta universe will continue to bring huge computing demand. The 5g era will bring explosive growth of data, greatly increase the demand for computing power scale and computing power, and the progress of computing power reversely supports the innovation of applications and promotes the upgrading of technologies and the innovation speed of algorithms.”
Image Source: screenshot of metauniverse 2022 – accumulated power
Xu Zexuan of CCID Consulting digital economy industry research center also holds a similar view. In an analysis article, Xu Zexuan believes that 5g has become the key to the landing of the meta universe and is expected to continue the high growth rate. Xu Zexuan said that “5g + VR (virtual reality) / AR (augmented reality)” technology is most promising to derive “killer” applications in the 5g personal consumption field at this stage. Especially after the concept of meta universe was put forward, “5g + VR / AR” has become the key to the implementation of meta universe.
In the previous investor research activities, some investors asked about China Mobile’s layout of metauniverse. China Mobile said: “the concept of metauniverse is still in the early stage of development, involving many industries and application scenarios, and the company will actively pay attention to its development.”
It is worth noting that although China Mobile judges that the metauniverse is still in the early stage of development, it has also made corresponding layout. “The company actively builds a new information infrastructure focusing on 5g, CFN and AAAs.” China Mobile said.
China Mobile said: “In the future, the company can provide the computing power required for real modeling and interaction and large-scale virtual content production experience, so as to meet the needs of ultra-low delay and ultra-large bandwidth. Based on the layout of the existing XR capability field, the company has forged the immersion ability of the underlying virtual scene. In the future, it can provide the ability of virtual reality integration, human-centered 3D modeling and rendering. The company focuses on digital Homo sapiens and the field Landscape construction has created a digital Homo sapiens image for 5g ice and snow, and carried out research pilot projects on relevant computing power and ability services with digital competitive sports as the main body. “
