Chinese carriers installed a total of 654,000 5G base stations in China last year
Shanghai, China’s main financial center, has already installed 51,716 5G base stations by the end of April, with 20.8 5G base stations per 10,000 inhabitants, the Chinese press reported.
According to the report, the average annual growth rate of 5G base stations in Shanghai has exceeded 65% in recent years. Also, according to the Shanghai Communications Administration, by the end of April, the city of Shanghai had built 8.2 5G base stations per square kilometer.
Chinese operators have already invested CNY12.3 billion ($ 1.82 billion) in 5G infrastructure since June 2019, accounting for 32.8% of total investment in the telecommunications sector since that date.
The Shanghai branch of China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom ended April with more than 9.3 million 5G mobile phone users, accounting for 21.3% of the total.
According to the latest available carrier figures, Chinese operators recorded a net profit of 21.15 million 5G subscribers in April.
China Mobile, the world’s largest subscriber in terms of subscribers, added a total of 10.36 million 5G subscribers per month. The operator said that it ended April 2021 with 476.9 million 5G subscribers compared to 205.29 million 5G subscribers.
China Mobile added 79.75 million subscribers to the 5G segment in the first quarter of this year.
Rival operator China Unicom said it added a total of 4.11 million 5G subscribers in April. The carrier ended the month with 174.76 million 5G subscribers.
Meanwhile, China Telecom added 6.68 million 5G subscribers in April, bringing its total number of 5G subscribers to 217.4 million. In the first quarter, Telco added a total of 22.95 million 5G subscribers.
According to Zhang Yunming, deputy head of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), Chinese telecoms have already set up about 1.6 million 5G base stations nationwide.
Chinese operators aim to build 600,000 new 5G base stations this year, of which 134,000 have already been built in the first quarter. According to previous reports, China expects to end this year with about 2 million 5G base stations.
Chinese carriers reportedly deployed a total of 654,000 base stations nationwide last year.
The country’s 5G networks now cover all prefecture-level cities, more than 98% of county-level urban areas, and 80% of township-level urban areas across the country.
According to a recent report by GSMA, China is expected to reach 892 million connections in the 5G segment in 2025.
According to a report by “The Mobile Economy China”, GSMA expects 5G connections in the country to represent 52% of total mobile lines in 2025, up from 29% in 2021.
The report further states that mainland China represents the single largest 5G market in the world, with more than three-quarters of the world’s total 5G connections by the end of 2021.
