“Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily”, May 17 (Reporter Huang Xinyi) At the 2024 World Telecom and Information Society Day conference, China Telecom, China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Radio and Television jointly announced the launch of commercial promotion of 5G cross-network roaming. This marks a new stage in 5G off-network roaming.

The so-called 5G cross-network roaming means that when the affiliated operator does not have 5G network coverage, users can connect to other operators' 5G networks and continue to use 5G services. It is of great significance in reducing signal blind spots, improving user experience, and speeding up 5G network coverage, especially in remote and rural areas. The “14th Five-Year Plan” issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in 2021 proposes to further promote the co-construction and sharing of telecommunication infrastructure, support the co-construction and sharing of 5G access networks, promote 5G cross-network roaming, and gradually form a mobile communication network pattern where multiple networks coexist in hot areas and one network is supported in remote areas.

On May 17 of last year, Xinjiang launched the world's first 5G roaming trial. The number of roaming users, roaming data volume, and roaming call time each exceeded 34,000 people, 2,000 GB, and 200 hours, respectively, effectively verifying the commercial viability of 5G roaming on the current network. Next, the relevant provinces will formulate specific promotion plans to speed up promotion and implementation.

The “Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily” reporter noticed that according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's previous plan, all 5G networks at the county level and below will have cross-network roaming functions in the future, encouraging basic telecom companies to carry out cross-network roaming under a market-based mechanism, and supporting provinces and autonomous regions such as Tibet, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, Gansu, and Heilongjiang to prioritize cross-network roaming pilots.

An operator 5G-A technical expert told the “Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily” reporter that this move will greatly improve network coverage capabilities in frontier and rural areas, and will be of great benefit to terminal sales and business development.

To achieve 5G cross-network roaming, existing operators' core network equipment needs to be upgraded. “There is no need to upgrade wireless side equipment such as base stations; now the core networks of various operators need to be upgraded.” The expert mentioned above said.

Yang Guang, senior chief analyst at Omdia, analyzed to the “Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily” reporter that the launch of commercial promotion of 5G cross-network roaming will definitely help increase 5G penetration rate and promote 5G business development in the short term, especially in remote regions.

“However, it also depends on specific promotion plans and plans. In particular, it is necessary to find a balance between reducing operators' initial network construction costs and maintaining adequate market competition to avoid a situation where simply relying on roaming on different networks reduces investment in network construction. This is not conducive to maintaining the healthy development of the industry and providing consumers with diverse choices.”

Regarding the internetwork settlement model for 5G cross-network roaming, Yang Guang believes that the most important thing is the scope of application. “Cross-network roaming is possible in any region and under what conditions. Currently. International cross-network roaming cases will generally take population or population density into account. Cross-network roaming is only permitted when population density is low and operators have a long payback period. Domestically, different regions, and different population densities in different provinces may have an impact on the rate and method of settlement, so some method adapted to local conditions may be used, and local companies will negotiate according to the actual situation. ”