As the 5G era looms, China's three major carriers are expected to make tens of billions of yuan investments in 2019 in the next generation of wireless technologies, media reported on Tuesday.
Although China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom have not come up with specifics on 5G network deployment, China Mobile is expected to adopt Non Standalone (NSA) networks, news site stockstar.com reported on Tuesday.
In the first quarter of 2019, suppliers will meet the demand for NSA network construction considered the ongoing supply chain development, and China Unicom is also likely to launch NSA network construction at that time, stockstar.com said.
China Telecom has already launched 31 5G stations in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province, which is known as China's Silicon Valley. Meanwhile, it has also established about 10 5G stations in the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center, East China's Zhejiang Province, the report said.
As the world's second-largest economy with the world's largest population, China will soon have larger 5G trials nationwide. Urban subway lines, stadiums, residential areas, office buildings and other facilities will be the primary areas covered by 5G, followed by rural areas and factories, according to stockstar.com.
At the early stage of 5G deployment, China will see 20 to 25 cities covered by 5G services in the next year, and each city see about 500 to 1,000 base stations, the report said, citing industry insiders.
As the largest telecoms equipment supplier, China's Huawei Technologies said it has secured more than 25 5G contracts worldwide and delivered more than 10,000 stations, according to a statement the company sent to the Global Times on Tuesday.
At the pre-commercialization stage, the price for a single 5G station is estimated at 500,000 yuan ($72,493) to 600,000 yuan, the media report said. As the industry matures, the cost will fall to 300,000 yuan to 400,000 yuan each.
