① The reporter recently learned that 5G-A will enter the commercial deployment phase this year. Meanwhile, 5G-A's synesthetic integration capability will provide important support for the low-altitude economy, which has recently been quite hot. ② 5G-A related technology is being widely verified. The main application scenarios include immersion in real-time, industrial interconnection, 100 billion IoT, integration of heaven and earth, integration of synergy, intelligent uplift, etc.; in terms of manufacturers, the main participants are ZTE, Huawei, etc.
Finance Association, April 1 (Reporter Fu Jing) Recently, 5G-A brought this operator back into the spotlight due to the news that China Mobile (600941.SH) launched the world's first commercial deployment of 5G-A in Hangzhou. A CIFA reporter recently learned from ZTE (000063.SZ) that the 5G-A is expected to enter the commercial deployment phase this year. Meanwhile, 5G-A's synesthetic integration capability will provide important support for the low-altitude economy, which has recently been quite hot.
According to reports, while launching the world's first 5G-A commercial deployment in Hangzhou, China Mobile also announced the first batch of 100 commercial 5G-A network cities, and announced plans to expand to more than 300 cities across the country within the year to build the largest 5G-A commercial network.
Earlier, the reporter learned from China Mobile that it is leading 60 5G-A international standards, ranking first among global operators. The reporter noticed that as an evolved technology between 5G and 6G, 5G-A mainly solves 5G commercial problems, and is currently being strongly promoted by operators. Judging from the pace of standard-setting, the first 5G-A version, R18, will be frozen this year. Li Qiang, general manager of China Mobile's planning department, said earlier at 2024MWC that he aims to achieve full commercial use of 5G-A by the end of 2026.
(Mobile 5G-A overall road sign taken by a reporter from the Financial Association during 2023MWC Shanghai)
ZTE also said that it will cooperate with operators to carry out technical verification, prepare market strategies ahead of time, and support the future development of the company's wireless products in technical directions such as Global Communications, NTN, and Redcap, which are expected to enter the implementation stage. A communications industry insider told the Financial Federation reporter that the main players behind the 5.5G rollout by operators are manufacturers such as ZTE and Huawei.
After sorting through the progress of 5G-A in the industry since this year, the CIFA reporter noticed that the relevant technology is being extensively verified.
For example, the 2024 Spring Festival Gala is a live broadcast of the Spring Festival Gala based on a new model of 5G-A, using “5G-A ultra-high-definition low-compression wireless mobile live broadcast” technology; at the end of February, ZTE, China Mobile, Qualcomm, and Danghong Qitian Group launched a 5G-A XR large space battle game project, and Sifang has completed a multi-concurrent, large-space XR competitive game business pilot based on 5G-A high-capacity, low latency, and intelligent XR business guarantee schemes; in early March, the industry's first end-to-end verification and deployment of the Internet of Vehicles business based on integrated low-frequency sensing was completed. 5g in the GHz band- A synesthesia integrated technology; Shanghai Telecom pioneered a 5G-A 10 gigabit network pilot in Shanghai's Lujiazui Central Area and Xuhui District's “Modal Speed Space” area; recently, China Mobile also established a 5G-A naked eye 3D industry alliance with several manufacturers.
From an application perspective, the IMT-2020 (5G) propulsion team proposed the six main application scenarios of 5G-A, namely immersive real-time, industrial interconnection, 100 billion IoT, integration of space and earth, integration of sensing, and intelligent upgrading.
In fact, 5G-A's synesthetic integration capability will provide important support for the low-altitude economy, which has been quite hot in the near future. According to media reports, “5G-A can provide network coverage for passengers on low-altitude aircraft, and integrated sensing can provide low-altitude aircraft with service capabilities such as flight supervision and full life cycle management.” Judging from the performance of the secondary market, the concept of synesthetic integration is active today.
The aforementioned communications industry insider also told the Financial Federation that, benefiting from the progress of 5G-A, the 5G XR industry is about to enter a period of explosion.
It is worth noting that the high-speed rail 5G-A service capacity has also begun to be commercialized domestically. The reporter learned that China Telecom (601728.SH) Shaanxi Company recently deployed 2.1 GHz+3.5 GHz triple-carrier aggregation schemes in the Weinan section of the Xulan High Speed Rail. At 300 km/h, the average downlink rate of high-speed rail users reached 655 Mbps, with a peak of nearly 1.1 Gbps. However, a railway communication network practitioner told the reporter, “Railway wireless networks are still different from the operator's technical route for user networks. 5.5G (officially large area) applications in railways will take at least three years. Although tests have already been carried out, the biggest characteristic of railway networks is that they must be safe and stable.”