China will vigorously promote the research and development (R&D) of 6G mobile phone technology to establish a beachhead in the next-generation telecom technology, while also seeking to widen the application of 5G in more industries, officials and company executives said during the opening ceremony of the 2023 Mobile World Congress Shanghai (MWC). The country has built the world’s largest 5G network, with more than 2.84 million 5G base stations as of May and 5G signals are available in every county, according to the China Academy of Information and Communications. Zhao Zhiguo, Chief Engineer at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), said additional efforts are required to deepen the integration and application of 5G in key fields such as mining and electric power.
“As a technology hub in China, the world’s biggest mobile market, Shanghai is the natural host city for MWC in Asia. We are hugely grateful to the continued support of Shanghai and our partners and hosts,” said Mats Granryd, Director General of the Global System for Mobile Communications Alliance, the organizer of the Shanghai event. China Mobile will focus on the development of 6G, strengthen cross-border and cross-industry cooperation in theoretical research and scenario-based applications, and push for a globally unified 6G standard, said Yang Jie, Chairman of the world’s largest telecom operator by mobile subscribers. Liang Baojun, Deputy General Manager of China Unicom, said the company will focus on five areas for future network technology research, including 6G and computing power networks.
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) approved a 6G vision framework, a foundation document for global 6G work, earlier this month, launching global research on the next-generation wireless technology, experts said. The newly approved 6G standard now includes six key usage scenarios, compared to only three in 5G. A key feature is that 6G will allow the interworking of terrestrial networks with non-terrestrial technologies such as satellites, the ITU said. Meng Wanzhou, rotating Chairwoman and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Huawei Technologies, said 5G is crossing a turning point from quantitative to qualitative growth, and the world is expected to have 5 billion 5G connections by 2030, up from 1.5 billion in 2023, with more devices and cars connected to the wireless network, the China Daily reports.
