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700,000 5G co-construction and sharing stations upgrade China’s society digitalization

2022-06-06 17:39:52Source:CIOE

The sharing economy is more popular in these years. It is also true for telecom operators. They also opened the sharing mode. Since 2019, China Telecom and China Unicom have fully launched the co-construction and sharing of 5G networks.



At present, China Telecom and China Unicom have jointly cracked the problem of 5G co-construction and sharing, and they had found an innovative path together.


5G co-construction and sharing


A new pattern of 5G development based on sharing


In the information era, how to build a high-quality 5G network efficiently and cost-effectively has become the primary challenge for operators' development.


On September 9, 2019, China Telecom and China Unicom signed the Framework Cooperation Agreement on 5G Network Co-Construction and Sharing, agreeing to build and share a 5G high-quality network throughout the entire life cycle and network of 5G.


At Mobile World Congress 2022, Li Zhengmao, General Manager of China Telecom, said that by the end of January 2022, China Telecom and China Unicom deployed 700,000 5G base stations for co-construction and sharing. It has to be said that both sides have been able to develop 5G network coverage capabilities in the shortest time and at the lowest cost through joint efforts.


Since 2019, when China Telecom and China Unicom started the 5G co-construction and sharing model, they have jointly solved a series of problems and challenges, such as the research and development of large bandwidth and high-power devices, super large-scale networking and operation of 5G access networks, and both sides have made significant breakthroughs in 5G shared technology, devices, equipment, networking and operation.


It is not difficult to speculate that in the future, China Telecom and China Unicom will promote the formation of a new pattern of 5G development with faster construction speed, higher resource efficiency, better quality of service and better competition and order.


5G Co-construction and Sharing

Upgrading society digitalization


China Telecom and China Unicom have effectively reduced construction investment and maintenance costs, avoided duplication of site construction, saved sky space, power and energy, and site resources, while doubling the size, coverage, bandwidth, and rate of the 5G network through 5G co-construction and sharing.


Co-construction and sharing 5G base station


In Chongqing, China Telecom Chongqing Branch and China Unicom Chongqing Branch jointly built the 4/5G network for the entire Phase I of Metro Line 9 over a period of 95 days. At present, the average download rate of 4/5G network users in the whole line of Metro Line 9 reaches 575Mbps and the peak can reach 723Mbps, which greatly satisfies the general public's rail transit Internet experience.


In Hebei, under the guidance of the innovative model of common construction, sharing and maintenance, China Telecom Baoding Branch and China Unicom Baoding Branch have built the Spring District into the first FTTH common construction, sharing and maintenance demonstration district, with 54% savings in construction investment costs and 13,000 households covered after completion.


In addition, China Telecom and China Unicom also launched a joint self-developed shared blockchain scheduling platform last year. The shared blockchain scheduling platform is the first blockchain-based cross-operator 5G operation scheduling system, which realizes blockchain cross-cloud interoperable network governance and provides a new solution for efficient management and operation of shared networks.


How can 5G co-location continue to be innovative?

In the digital era, China Telecom and China Unicom have opened an innovative path of co-construction and sharing, and have achieved remarkable results, but also face many challenges.


  • First, in terms of network management. China Telecom and China Unicom are both billion subscriber operators, and their respective network resources, planning goals, and construction processes are different, so how to "seek common ground while reserving differences" in the process of joint construction and sharing has become the first issue to be resolved by both sides.


  • Second, in terms of network operation, both sides also face the challenge of how to make the network and other resources work together efficiently, dispatch them fairly and ensure mutual trust under a shared network.


  • Third, in terms of network technology, the common shared 5G network needs to meet the needs of both operators' customers, so how to coordinate on technical standards, network evolution, and user strategies still needs to be technically tackled.


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