A second batch of 400 high-level 5G factories for the year 2024 will be released, aiming to promote the development of then 5G+ industrial internet in key industries such as steel, equipment manufacturing, electronics, mining and ports, Zhang Yunming, Vice Minister of Industry and Information Technology, said. “The industrial internet has become the most active field of 5G application and innovation,” said Zhang at the 2024 China 5G+ Industrial Internet Conference in Wuhan, Hubei province. The number of 5G+ industrial internet projects has exceeded 15,000 in China, achieving full coverage across 41 major industrial categories. “This has effectively driven the development of the manufacturing industry toward being high-end, intelligent and green.”
On November 7, MIIT released a 5G Factory List, the first for 2024, with 400 factories. These factories are involved in various industries such as mining, electronics, food and beverages, shipbuilding, automobiles and equipment manufacturing. These 400 5G factories drove investment of more than CNY22 billion, and the average investment of each plant increased by nearly 180% year-on-year. There are more than 15,000 “5G + industrial internet” projects nationwide, including more than 4,000 5G factories. In March 2023, MIIT Minister Jin Zhuanglong said that China planned to build more than 10,000 5G factories during the 14th Five Year Plan period (2021-25). The application of 5G+ and industrial internet in various industries reduces manufacturing costs while increasing efficiency, Wang Peng, Associate Research Fellow at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.
The application of 5G has covered 76 major categories of the national economy, deeply integrating into key areas. With the continuous promotion of “5G + industrial internet” on a large scale, 5G factories are being established one after another, and new models and formats are emerging, boosting the digital transformation of industries in China, according to an official report.
Meanwhile, 6G technology is set to establish a more cutting-edge information network infrastructure for the “internet of everything”, leading a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation. “The changes ushered in by 6G will be disruptive,” said Xu Fei, Director of the 6G research and development center at the ZGC Institute of Ubiquitous-X Innovation and Applications (ZGC X-NET) initiated by the China Mobile Group. Compared to 5G, 6G networks offer revolutionary improvements in speed, latency, reliability, and other performance indicators. The standout feature of 6G lies in its remarkable speed, which is set to exceed 10 times the rates offered by 5G networks. Currently, an initial small-scale 6G trial network has been established in Beijing, supporting a multi-band fusion network comprising millimeter waves, visible light and other frequencies, the China Daily adds.
