Strengthen 5G evolution and increase 6G research and development efforts

As the two meetings progressed, new signals continued to come from the policy side.

Today, the Minister of Industry and Information Technology's speech at the second “Ministerial Channel” interview event of the Second Session of the 14th National People's Congress mentioned the need to moderately advance the construction of information facilities such as 5G and computing power, increase 6G research and development efforts, prepare to pilot the opening of Internet data centers, and carry out the “Artificial Intelligence +” campaign.

He said that in order to promote the deep integration of scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation, the other is to promote the deep integration of informatization and industrialization, including building information facilities such as 5G computing power ahead of schedule to promote the digital, networked, and intelligent development of the manufacturing industry.

Jin Zhuanglong said that to advance the new type of industrialization, it is necessary to deepen reforms and expand opening-up, so the country has completely lifted restrictions on foreign investment access in the manufacturing sector, and is preparing to open value-added telecommunication services such as Internet data centers on a pilot basis.

Previously, on the MWC2024 stage, domestic telecommunications companies and operators had already taken the lead in raising the “big flag” of 5G-A.

Among them, Huawei released a full range of 5G-A products and solutions to the world, including the first major model in the communications industry and the first 5G-A intelligent core network. Up to now, Huawei has supported operators to launch 5G-A commercial verification and testing in more than 20 cities around the world. During MWC2024, ZTE showcased panoramic plans and achievements for the 5G-A era, and released the top ten new 5G-A products.

Among the three major operators, China Mobile announced that it will launch commercial deployment of 5G-A in more than 300 cities in 2024, aiming to achieve full commercial use of 5G-A by the end of 2026. China Unicom released the “Top Ten 5G-A Innovation Demonstration Achievements”, bringing a new “China Plan” to the development of the global 5G-A industry. China Telecom and ZTE jointly released innovative Cluster DRS technologies and achievements.

With the opening of 5G-A in the first year of commercial use, 6G has also become a new circuit in the field of technology at home and abroad.

How broad is the 6G market?

In recent years, a wave of technology led by artificial intelligence has taken the world by storm.

Expanding digital trends such as the Internet of Things, AI, virtual reality, and VR/AR have had a positive impact on the development of the 6G industry.

According to the 6G market report recently released by Beyond Market Insights, the 6G market size is expected to grow from US$5.09 billion in 2023 to US$70.43 billion by 2032, driven by a compound annual growth rate of 33.9%.

The agency anticipates that another factor supporting the overall growth of the 6G industry is the continued development of next-generation networks.

The amount of information people produce, store, and share is growing exponentially as every Internet user innovates in communication methods, and it is expected that 6G's wide-area capacity will be at least 20 times that of 5G. Furthermore, the 6G data rate experienced by users is expected to reach 1000 Mbps, which is 10 times faster than 5G.

Currently, China is in a leading position in the world in 6G technology research and development. Among them, 6G patent applications accounted for about 40.3% of the world, followed by the US and Japan, with 35.2% and 9.9% respectively.

Shanghai Securities pointed out that from a macro perspective, China's 6G patent applications account for about 40.3% of the world. The three major operators, mainstream equipment vendors such as Huawei and ZTE, and various communication companies are also actively exploring potential 6G technology directions and application scenarios, and 6G has entered a period of accelerated growth.

Hualong Securities said that with the development of 5G to 6G, AI is gradually being widely used in the communication field. 5G-A is the only way to develop 6G, and its mutual promotion with AI is also speeding up the development of 5G to 6G.

According to the agency, at the 2024 MWC conference, several Chinese enterprises announced their 5G-A results and plans, and recommended focusing on relevant operators; optical module companies that are expected to be the first to achieve performance; communication equipment manufacturers; and at the same time, it is recommended to focus on the medium- to long-term opportunity sector of satellite communications.