The Chinese government has awarded a 5G trial license to state-owned cable TV operator China Broadcasting Network with the aim of accelerating the nationwide deployment of 5G in the country.
Through this license, the broadcaster will be allowed to run trials in the 4.9 GHz frequency range in 16 cities including Beijing, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said.
In June, China Broadcasting Network had obtained a license for the provision of commercial 5G services. At that time, the government also granted licenses to China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom.
The new test frequency license means that the state-owned broadcaster has officially obtained the right to use 5G frequencies in relevant regions across China.
At the end of last year, the MIIT issued licenses for 5G trials in a number of cities across China. Commercial rollout of 5G in China was initially expected to occur during 2020. However, the Chinese government decided to accelerate 5G deployment will trigger investment in the Chinese market.
All the 300 prefecture-level cities in China are expected to be covered by a 5G network by the end of 2020, according to a recent statement by MIIT.
Recent data from MIIT showed that Chinese state carriers have already deployed a total of 126,000 5G base stations across the country.
Chinese telcos China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom had launched commercial 5G services in November 2019. The service was initially available in large cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Nanjing and Tianjin.
According to previous reports, the three operators were expecting to operate nearly 130,000 5G base stations by the end of 2019. China Mobile announced plans to install 50,000 5G sites by end-2019, while China Unicom and China Telecom each target about 40,000, according to press reports.
According to the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, 5G technology is expected to create more than 8 million jobs in China by 2030.
It is forecasted that 28% of China’s mobile connections will be running on 5G networks by 2025, accounting for about one-third of all 5G connections globally, according to a previous report by the GSMA.