Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and eleven other departments jointly issued the “Notice on Launching the “Signal Upgrade” Special Action. Among them, it is proposed to focus on 11 key scenarios, including government affairs centers, cultural tourism attractions, medical institutions, colleges and universities, transportation hubs, urban subways, highways and railway waterways, key supermarkets, residential areas, commercial buildings, towns and rural areas, etc., to speed up the completion of weak links in network coverage and business services.

Achieve a significant increase in mobile network (4G and 5G) signals. By the end of 2025, more than 120,000 key locations will have achieved deep mobile network coverage; 30,000 kilometers of railways, 500,000 kilometers of highways and 200 subway lines will achieve continuous mobile network coverage. The depth and breadth of 5G network coverage continues to improve, and the proportion of 5G traffic has increased significantly.

A relevant person in charge of the Information and Communications Development Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said that at present, China has built the world's largest and technology-leading mobile network. The majority of users have changed from focusing on whether mobile networks are covered in the past to paying more attention to mobile network quality and business experience, and looking forward to a better digital life. At the same time, various industries are going through a critical stage of digital, networked, and intelligent transformation, and the need for deep mobile network coverage is even more urgent.

The four main tasks

The “Special Action” released this time proposes four major tasks in terms of strengthening network coverage in key scenarios, speeding up the upgrading of key business services, strengthening efficient collaboration of resource elements, and promoting the improvement of monitoring and evaluation levels.

inStrengthen network coverage in key scenariosOn the other hand, the “Special Action” targets 11 key scenarios, including government centers, cultural tourism, medical institutions, colleges and universities, and transportation hubs, and clearly sets out coverage targets for 2024 and 2025. For example, by 2025, the mobile network signal coverage and application experience of all 5A scenic spots, more than 3,000 4A scenic spots, and more than 400 national second-level museums will be improved; by 2025, mobile network signal coverage and application experience will be improved in more than 70% of residential areas.

inAccelerate the upgrading of key business servicesOn the other hand, the “Special Action” deployed tasks such as optimizing the deployment of Internet application infrastructure, improving the monitoring and analysis of key indicators of Internet business perception, and strengthening the application of new technology and product plan research and development. Major Internet companies are speeding up the deployment of key content facilities, important business hubs, and resource gathering centers to enhance comprehensive business service capabilities. Facing the differentiated perception requirements of new Internet services, speed up the construction of user business perception evaluation standards, and ensure the user's end-to-end business experience through classification and classification.

inStrengthen efficient collaboration of resource elementsOn the other hand, the “Special Action” lays out tasks such as promoting cross-industry planning and implementation of standards, guaranteeing communication infrastructure construction rights in key locations, and strengthening energy use guarantees for communication infrastructure. Local education, natural resources, housing and urban-rural construction, transportation, culture and tourism, health and other industry authorities organize public transportation service units such as transportation hubs, railway highways, urban subways, etc., owner units of key supermarkets, residential areas, commercial buildings, etc., government affairs centers, cultural tourism attractions, medical institutions, high schools, townships and rural areas, etc., reserve space for communication infrastructure construction such as mobile communication base stations, optical fiber broadband, etc. where conditions are met, to encourage the free opening of facilities and resources belonging to each unit to infrastructure communication construction to provide construction, operation and maintenance Facilitate and ensure the right of way to build communication infrastructure.

inPromote the improvement of monitoring and evaluation standardsOn the other hand, the “Special Action” deployed tasks such as improving network quality evaluation systems and monitoring capabilities, and strengthening the resilience of communication networks. The China Academy of Information and Communication Technology continues to improve the functions of the national mobile network quality perception platform, forming capabilities such as global perception of network quality, alerting key scenarios, and monitoring the quality of key services; exploring the establishment of certification mechanisms for tools such as network quality evaluation instruments, speeding up R&D, innovation and industrialization of related tools, and improving the accuracy, consistency and comparability of test results of various tools.

5G industry integration ushered in a critical period of scale

At the World 5G Conference in December last year, Hong Yaozhuang, CEO of the Global Mobile Communications Systems Association, said that nearly 300 mobile operators in 100 global markets have launched commercial 5G services and currently have nearly 1.6 billion 5G connections. By 2030, this number is expected to grow to 5.4 billion. 5G technology will create an economic value of 1 trillion US dollars for global GDP growth, nearly half of which will come from services and applications such as finance, healthcare, education, etc.

However, China's 5G construction has achieved particularly remarkable results. At present, China has built the world's largest and most technologically advanced 5G network, forming a leading system advantage in various aspects such as 5G standard patents, equipment manufacturing, and application innovation. The number of 5G users accounts for 60% of the world. 5G integrated applications have now covered 67 of the 97 major categories of the national economy, serving production and life, reducing costs and increasing efficiency, solving the pain points of industrial digitalization, and helping the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries.

Wu Hequan, an Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, also stressed that the main application of 5G is the industrial Internet, which has achieved great results in machine vision and remote control robot applications. As 5G capabilities improve, it will also play a greater role in discrete manufacturing and process manufacturing production lines. “The industry model based on generative big model development is also progressing well. There is hope to drive more industrial digital transformation and increase the demand for 5G.”

While 5G construction has achieved remarkable results, 5.5G is also advancing at an accelerated pace. Currently, major countries and international organizations around the world are strengthening the evolution of 5G-A (also known as 5.5G) and 6G research in an effort to build a pioneering technological advantage for a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation.

Mobile communications have experienced several years of development, and bandwidth has continued to increase. From mobility, wide coverage, data, and broadband to industrial applications, there will be a 5.5G process from 5G to 6G. Its goal is to enter full commercial use by 2025. It hopes to improve peak value, connection density, positioning accuracy, and bit energy efficiency by 10 times compared to current 5G.

A number of listed companies have already laid out

In recent years, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has issued a number of guidance documents for 5G applications to promote large-scale 5G applications and the layout of intelligent computing power facilities. Wang Zhiqin, vice president of the China Academy of Information and Communication Technology, predicts that the commercial period of 6G technology will basically be around 2030. 5G commercialization will reach a new level, and the industrial chain is expected to usher in a critical period of development and maturity. On the market side, 5G concept stocks also performed very well last year, rising 22.64% throughout the year.

As the digitization process of the industry deepens, next-generation communication technology places higher demands on speed, latency, and connection quality. As the foundation for economic development, communication infrastructure construction, combined with the commercial deployment of 5G-A, will make operators' capital expenditure more resilient.

Looking ahead to the future market, Galaxy Securities pointed out that in a context where policies such as digital China continue to be strengthened and new AI applications continue to be promoted, new infrastructure for the digital economy is expected to consolidate and help upgrade computing power networks, and the communications+new infrastructure sector is expected to take the lead in expected improvements. With the recovery of the ICT cornerstone optical network industry chain, demand for catalytic optical modules, temperature control and energy saving has further increased. 5G applications to the industrial Internet are also the focus of future policy and demand, and they are optimistic about the undervaluation boost of manufacturers related to the Industrial Internet of Things.

Guosheng Securities also said that according to CITIC Mobile's estimates, in the future, China's low-band 5G base stations will be about 1.8 million, the total number of mid-band 5G base stations will be about 5 million, and the total number of high-frequency 5G base stations will be about 1 million. Furthermore, considering overseas 5G base station construction needs, base station equipment vendors are expected to benefit from global 5G base station deployment in the long term.

Concept stocks at a glance:

China Unicom:A holding company approved by the State Council. Its business scope is investment in the telecommunications industry. The company has a modern communication network covering the whole country and the world, actively promotes broadband fixed networks and mobile networks, and provides users with comprehensive, high-quality information and communication services.

ZTE:The world's leading listed company in the integrated communications manufacturing industry, is a communications solution provider that has grown rapidly globally in recent years.

Firefight Communications:The leader of 5G ultra-broadband equipment. Its products revolve around the entire optical communication industry chain and have advanced technology. It is the enterprise with the most complete layout of optical communication products in China, and can maximize the opportunities brought by the growth of the optical communication industry.

Tongyu Communications:The company has formed a complete product line of communication antennas and RF devices, developed multiple series of base station antennas, leading products, which can meet the current diverse product needs of 2G, 3G, 4G, 4.5G and other multiple network formats at home and abroad, and has strong market competitiveness in the field of mobile communication antennas.

Datang Telecom:The company's dedicated mobile communication system is based on 4G/5G communication standards. In response to long-distance coverage communication requirements in complex electromagnetic environments, mobile communication systems and equipment are developed and improved in a customized manner. As a mobile extension of the fixed network, it provides communication guarantees for users in the covered area.

Dafu Technology:The company has product solutions in the field of 5G antenna technology, and also has advantages at the 5.5G application level.