China Overtakes US, Achieves 3M 5G Base Stations Before Planned Deadline

In a remarkable stride towards technological advancement, China has outperformed its own target for 5G base stations, constructing 3 million of them by June end, six months ahead of schedule, South China Morning Post reports.

5G Connectivity Race: These figures indicate a significant lead for China over the United States in the 5G connectivity race, with over 600,000 new stations added in the last quarter alone.

The US, in contrast, built approximately 100,000 5G base stations between 2019 and 2021.

MIIT Chief Engineer’s Statement: “As of the end of June, the number of 5G base stations in China had reached 2.937 million, covering all urban areas of prefecture-level and county-level cities, and the coverage is continuously expanding in both breadth and depth,” said Zhao Zhiguo, Chief Engineer at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), China.

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5G’s Impact on Chinese Industries: The rapid expansion of advanced communications infrastructure has accelerated the technological upgrade of Chinese industries, enhancing their global competitiveness. The 3 million 5G stations are connected to 676 million mobile phones and over 2.12 billion users of mobile Internet of Things (IoT) terminals.

Concerns and Criticisms: Despite the impressive progress, there are concerns about the massive investment in telecoms infrastructure amidst the recent economic slowdown. Critics argue that 4G could meet most consumers’ needs, rendering the 5G investment potentially wasteful.

5G’s Role in Smart Manufacturing: However, Tao Qing, director of MIIT's operation monitoring and coordination bureau, emphasized that 5G is more about smart manufacturing than streaming short videos.

“The product development cycle of factories has been shortened by an average of 20.7% [and] production efficiency has been increased by an average of 34.8%,” she said.

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