What’s new: China Mobile Ltd., one of the country’s three major state-owned mobile carriers, vowed to deploy 5G networks covering all rural regions at the township level by the end of 2022.
At the China Mobile Global Partner Conference Tuesday, General Manager Dong Xin said China Mobile has built more than 560,000 5G base stations across the country, the largest total in the world. It has 360 million 5G monthly package subscribers, more than the combined users of the two other state-owned carriers.
China Mobile will strengthen ecological cooperation and expand 5G industry applications in 18 key vertical sectors, including the industrial internet, President Yang Jie said at the conference.
The background: China Mobile is seeking to sell shares on Shanghai’s main board after its forced delisting from the New York Stock Exchange. The company plans to use half of the 56 billion yuan ($8.6 billion) of proceeds to construct 5G networks.
China has 450 million 5G users linked to network coverage through 1.16 million 5G base stations, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
At the same time, China Mobile has a long way to go before it can build a deeply connected nationwide 5G network. China had a total of 9.31 million mobile communication base stations in 2020, of which 5.75 million were 4G stations.
Contact reporter Denise Jia (huijuanjia@caixin.com) and editor Bob Simison (bobsimison@caixin.com)
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