According to a study published by the research arm of sector regulator the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), China’s three mobile network operators – China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom – are expected to invest a total of CNY2.8 trillion (USD411 billion) in 5G technologies between 2020 and 2030, with annual spending projected to peak at CNY313.3 billion in 2023, the South China Morning Post writes. Already the world’s largest 4G market by a substantial margin – with more than 800 million LTE connections in March 2017 according to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database – the massive investment is predicted to establish China as the world’s largest 5G market over the next decade, with the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) claiming that network equipment, smartphone suppliers, internet companies, application developers, and telecommunications operators will reap the greatest benefits from the new platform. The white paper goes on to claim that 5G-related revenue for network equipment and handset manufacturers will reach a total of around CNY17.5 trillion during the ten-year period, whilst e-commerce retailers, application developers and other software firms are expected to generate turnover of CNY10.7 trillion from 5G over the same timeframe. Similarly, the network operators themselves are projected to see total revenue from 5G reach roughly CNY7.9 trillion between 2020 and 2030.