China Unicom is spearheading an ambitious 5G-Advanced (5G-A) rollout, aiming to cover 300 cities by 2025. This substantial initiative highlights their commitment to network enhancement, offering blazing 5Gbps to 10Gbps speeds.
China Unicom and Huawei have launched a groundbreaking 5G-Advanced network in Beijing, serving over 10 million people with speeds up to 10 Gbps. This large-scale deployment, leveraging AI and machine learning, optimizes network operations automatically, boosting efficiency and user experience dramatically.
China’s fiber networks are rapidly transforming the country’s digital landscape, with fiber now underpinning most fixed broadband connections. This move promotes gigabit services and smart cities, boosting operators’ revenue in a saturated market. AI integration further enhances network efficiency, ensuring premium service quality and opening new revenue channels for operators.
AI and mobile technologies are set to add $2 trillion to China’s economy by 2030, making up 8.3% of its GDP, according to the GSMA. Driven by 5G and AI integration across industries, especially manufacturing.
China Telecom announced the early completion of the 10,000-km Asia Direct Cable (ADC), the first new submarine link in the Asia-Pacific in over eight years. Developed by a consortium, ADC delivers over 160 Tbps capacity, easing congestion and enhancing cloud and data services.
China Mobile, the world’s largest mobile operator, now boasts over 500 million 5G users, according to its latest report. By the end of May, the telecom giant had 502.6 million active 5G network users, reflecting the growing adoption of this next-generation technology. This figure marks a significant milestone, as it represents actual 5G usage rather than just subscriptions to 5G plans.
China’s immense 5G market pulses with new additions, logging nearly 17 million subscribers in August as migrations to advanced telecommunications networks grow. Still, this uptake signifies a dampening speed, attributed to the top trio: China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom, seeing a fall in new users compared to prior months. Abstract figures of network utilization and the quality of reception, however, leave much to be unraveled. The niche player, China Broadnet, despite a recent debut, experiences stiff competition, highlighting the difficulty of penetration amidst dominant forces.
GSMA welcomes China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom to the Open Gateway initiative, aiming to enhance services and boost 5G connectivity through API-driven single access points. Collaboration between operators, developers, and cloud providers promises new opportunities and transformative benefits.
NATO’s HEIST initiative enhances global internet resilience by integrating subsea cables and satellites, aiming to safeguard against data traffic disruptions. GoTo harnesses generative AI to improve customer experiences, while China Unicom and Huawei launch a 5.5G network in Beijing, and Swisscom and Nokia deploy a nationwide drone network in Switzerland for safety and industrial monitoring.
The United States government has launched an investigation into Chinese telecommunications companies China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom amid fears that these firms might transfer US data to the Chinese government through their US cloud and wholesale routing services. According to Reuters, which cited three anonymous sources, the US Commerce Department has issued subpoenas to the three companies.
