China's 5G application leads the world

Visitors will experience 5G+Internet of Vehicles VR virtual driving at the 2021 World 5G Conference exhibition site. Photographed by Ren Chao, reporter of Xinhua News Agency

5G mobile medical equipment at the service trade fair. Photographed by Zhang Chenlin, reporter of Xinhua News Agency

From the 2021 World 5G Conference to the 2021 China International Trade in Services Fair (CIFTIS), several high-level conferences and exhibitions have focused on the digital cutting-edge technology represented by 5G for some time, which not only shows the speed and breadth of 5G construction and application, but also highlights China's determination to seize the opportunities of digital industrialization and promote high-quality development with 5G as the engine.

　　 New engine leading high-quality development

According to the 48th Statistical Report on the Development of China's Internet, the latest released by China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), China's 5G commercial development has achieved three leading positions in terms of scale, standard quantity and application innovation.

In terms of scale, Xiao Yaqing, minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, recently introduced at the 2021 World 5G Conference that China has opened and built 993000 5G base stations, covering all prefecture level cities, more than 95% of counties and 35% of villages and towns in China, and the number of mobile phone connections of 5G terminals has exceeded 392 million.

In terms of the number of standards, China's 5G standard essential patents accounted for more than 38%, ranking first in the world. Different from focusing on product manufacturing in the past, China is more involved in the development of upstream standards and ecological cultivation, and the 5G standard support capacity continues to increase. In recent years, 447 industry standards such as the Overall Technical Requirements for 5G Mobile Communication Network Core Network have been released, providing important technical specifications for 5G integrated application innovation and development.

In terms of application innovation, China's 5G application cases have exceeded 10000, covering 22 important industries and related fields of the national economy, such as steel, power, mining, etc., and forming a large number of colorful application scenarios. 5G is rapidly integrating into all walks of life, presenting various forms, and has formed a system leading edge, becoming a new engine leading high-quality development.

According to the Action Plan for "Sailing" 5G Applications (2021-2023) jointly released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other ten departments in July this year, by 2023, the penetration rate of China's 5G individual users will exceed 40%; In the vertical industry, the 5G application penetration rate of large industrial enterprises exceeds 35%; In the field of social livelihood, a number of "5G+smart education", "5G+smart medical", "5G+cultural tourism" model projects were created, and the construction level of "5G+smart city" was further improved.

　　 Effectively drive rural revitalization and industrial Internet construction

At the World 5G Conference and the World Trade Fair, 5G applications in all walks of life were collectively unveiled. The 5G application scenario supports the improvement of adaptability, greatly meets the digital needs of tourism, medical care, education, sports and other industries, and effectively drives rural revitalization and industrial Internet construction.

In the tourism industry, intelligent technologies, such as 5G+AI and 5G+VR, are widely used to promote the vigorous development of cloud tourism and digital virtual tourism. China Telecom applied 5G+MEC (Edge Computing Technology) capabilities to cultural and tourism scenes, and successfully restored the appearance of the Xia Dynasty palace in Erlitou Heritage Park in Yanshi, Henan Province. Tourists can use their mobile phones to "travel" to more than 3000 years ago, and feel the prosperity of the capital of Xia Dynasty through AR (augmented reality) technology.

In the medical industry, information technology represented by 5G has made Internet hospitals, Internet diagnosis and treatment, and telemedicine technologies more mature. With the help of orthopaedic surgical robots, Beijing Jishuitan Hospital and more than 10 provinces, autonomous regions and cities in Hebei, Tibet, Zhejiang, Shandong, Tianjin, Anhui, Guangdong, etc. successfully implemented more than 50 cases of 5G orthopaedic remote surgery; The use of the 5G ambulance has realized the goal of "getting on the ambulance and entering the hospital". After the patient enters the ambulance, the 5G system will quickly connect the patient's heart rate, blood pressure and other real-time conditions with the hospital emergency room to achieve "zero distance between the vehicle and the hospital".

The Beijing Winter Olympics, which will open next year, will also benefit from the popularity and application of 5G. Zhang Ping, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said that 5G technology can meet the needs of Beijing urban area, Yanqing and Zhangjiakou for efficient collaboration and management, and realize the application of smart watching, ultra-high definition live broadcast, sports technology, and safe games, so as to promote the leapfrog development of ice and snow sports.

According to the 48th Statistical Report on the Development of China's Internet, there are more than 1500 "5G+Industrial Internet" projects under construction in China, covering more than 20 important industries in the national economy. At the 2021 World 5G Conference, several "5G+Industrial Internet" projects were shortlisted in China's top ten 5G application cases——

Sany's 5G fully connected factory runs through the whole business process, with more than 230 industrial equipment connected to 5G, covering eight categories of equipment interconnection, production manufacturing, energy management, visual management, etc; Qingdao Port has built the world's first hydrogen powered 5G terminal. Nearly 100 intelligent devices, such as unmanned automatic guided vehicles and high-speed rail cranes, have been put into production. Container handling and transshipment are all completed by intelligent systems; Shanxi Yangmei Group and China Mobile built China's first underground 5G network in Xinyuan Coal Mine, realizing the intelligent connection of everything underground, reducing the safety risk of mining operations and improving the efficiency of mine production.

In Eshan She Nationality Township, Tonglu County, Zhejiang Province, the construction of the "5G rural intelligent brain comprehensive management platform" has integrated 5G applications into the villagers' clothing, food, housing and transportation. In the field, the "rice fish symbiosis cockpit" of intelligent agriculture can monitor the water quality of paddy fields and the growth of fish in real time, turning the originally experienced planting and breeding mode into a standardized and quantitative scientific and technological agricultural planting mode; "5G+VR Cloud Classroom" enables children in mountain areas to enter the classroom of famous schools, and realizes the overall optimization of rural teaching resources.

　　 Work together to ensure 5G development benefits the world

At present, a new upsurge of 5G enhanced technology research and development and industrial layout is being set off worldwide. Experts said that 5G development itself has the characteristics of division of labor and coordination, and deepening cooperation and expanding opening up are the only way to development. All countries must work together to ensure that 5G development benefits the world.

Li Meng, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Science and Technology, said that China is willing to continue to adhere to the concept of open cooperation, mutual benefit and win-win results, take a more open attitude and more pragmatic measures, rely on China's foundation in 5G technology application and industry, further strengthen international cooperation in 5G technology evolution, and explore the secondary development technology system for 5G vertical industry applications. Carry out 5G enhancement technical standards, equipment research and development, and test to tackle key problems, improve the adaptability of 5G vertical industry applications, and solve 5G frequency expansion, coverage enhancement and other development problems.

Changjiang Xiaojuan, School of Public Management, Tsinghua University, said that 5G is characterized by being able to connect more data, and globalization is its innate requirement. We should strive to gain the benefits of global scientific and technological cooperation, but we should also guard against risks and improve our scientific and technological innovation ability in the era of digital globalization.

Zhang Ping suggested that the construction of infrastructure such as 5G technology should be further accelerated to provide technical support for the development of digital trade. At the same time, attention should be paid to strengthening intellectual property protection, which is also an important prerequisite for China to actively build a new system of digital trade rules.

Xi Guohua, president of China Communications Standardization Association, believes that China has made great contributions to the development of 5G standards and has made many explorations in the application of industry standards. However, in the formulation of standards, there are still challenges such as the low level of vertical industry application, the industrial ecosystem to be improved, and the network security threat is still serious, which need to be solved by all parties.

Liu Xuan