Sihai network

When will 5g become popular? China Unicom and China Telecom may jointly build 5g network

Wang Xiaochu, chairman of the board of directors, was transferred to China Unicom from China Telecom. In combination with the consolidation trend of central enterprises at that time, many people inside and outside the industry had speculated that China Unicom and China Telecom might merge. When will 5g become popular?

1、 In the 5g medium and low frequency test license issued by the regulatory authority, China Radio and television has not been seen

On the same day that China Mobile held its 2018 global partner, the official media reported the news of "5g test spectrum release of three major operators". The newspaper includes the test frequency band obtained by three major operators. The results of 5g mid and low frequency test frequency obtained by the three major operators are as follows: China Telecom obtained 5g test frequency resources in 3400mhz-3500mhz (100MHz) band; China Mobile obtained 5g test frequency resources in 2515mhz-2675mhz (160MHz), 4800mhz-4900mhz (100MHz) band, including 2515-2575mhz (60MHz), 2635-2675mhz (40MHz) and 4800-4900mhz (100MHz) band As a new frequency band, 2575-2635 (60MHz) MHz band is the existing TD-LTE (4G) band of China Mobile; China Unicom has obtained 3500mhz-3600mhz (100MHz) 5g test frequency resources. The frequency resources of the 5g system test frequency license issued by the Ministry of industry and information technology of the people's Republic of China are roughly balanced. Taking into account the 5g frequency demand of existing basic telecom operation enterprises as a whole is conducive to promoting fair competition and sustainable development of operation enterprises.

Spectrum resource is the core resource of mobile communication development. Spectrum planning is the starting point of the industry and determines the industrial development pattern. The division results of the 5g test spectrum have been expected by the industry for a long time. For such distribution results, most of the industry think that this is also a combination of the three practical advantages, and helps to play the real advantages. However, for China Radio and television, which has been in the uproar for some time and is said to be sure to obtain 5g license plate, this time it has not obtained the test frequency band. Of course, compared with the three basic operators, the network construction of China Radio and television is still in its infancy, whether or not it has obtained the test license of medium and low frequency. Therefore, even if the license of medium and low frequency test is obtained, the probability of the final physical test is not great.

2、 Technical and financial requirements, China Unicom and China Telecom jointly build 5g network

With the upgrading of communication technology to 5g era, CDMA of China Telecom has been unable to evolve. From the perspective of complete technology, China Telecom can only choose other modes to deploy 5g network. This time, China Unicom and China Telecom obtained 3.5GHz adjacent. Therefore, if China Unicom and China Telecom choose to build the network in the 3.5GHz frequency band, due to the adjacent frequency spectrum of the two, and the existing filter and PA equipment support 200MHz bandwidth, that is, a set of wireless equipment can transmit 5g signals of China Unicom and China Telecom at the same time. Thus, the possibility that the two operators choose to build a 5g network will increase greatly.

In addition, considering the cost of network construction, China Unicom and China Telecom also need to choose 5g network. 5g is different from 2G, 3G and 4G networks, which need to build base stations intensively. Therefore, the two with limited financial resources also have the practical needs of CO financing and co building networks before 4G investment has not been recovered. In addition, a large number of sharing towers also provides convenient conditions for the network cooperation between the two. As long as they are willing to share the reserved core site, they can start 5g network deployment efficiently.

3、 The track has been set. How likely is the merger of China Unicom and China Telecom

If China Unicom and China Telecom build 5g network together with the actual demand of technology and capital cost, how likely is it to merge the two? We believe that the merger demand of the two companies will be a realistic choice in accordance with the rumors of various "nonsense" merger in the early stage. Especially in the current macro situation at home and abroad, this kind of realistic choice is only more and more likely. The international macro situation is that the trade war under "American priority" has begun to spread around the world, and ZTE has been sanctioned and sent to "inspectors", Huawei has been "blacklisted" as an example, seizing 5g's global leading advantage, which is no longer the competition of the communication industry, but the competition for the leading position of the whole industry and the whole industry chain with information communication as the core. After all, 5g changes society, which is totally different from 4G changing life. 5g involves the same industrial revolution as steam revolution, electrical revolution and information revolution. At the beginning of this month, South Korea has announced the start of 5g commercial, and the United States has also conducted trial commercial. Therefore, it is urgent to compete for 5g first mover advantage and seize 5g rapid development advantage. This requires that China must adapt to the changes in the international situation, expand first and then balance the development within the industry. Therefore, from the perspective of international competition and national strategy, the merger of China Unicom and China Telecom is in line with the trend.

From the perspective of domestic industry competition, no matter who is the leader, it is a contradiction among the people. And under the pressure of international competition, the real demand to fully support the industry to become bigger and stronger is far greater than the need to avoid asymmetric regulation and rebalancing of an independent industry. In addition, according to the recent merger information, the merger and reorganization of other industries in the state-owned assets system is also accelerating. According to the latest news, the "China railway restructuring plan is approved, four major engineering bureaus are about to return to embrace" and "three barrels of oil will face major reforms, and the state oil and gas pipeline company is coming". It can be said that different industries in China are starting to gather strength at home to further strengthen global competitiveness. Therefore, from this point of view, the merger of China Unicom and China Telecom also has a domestic policy basis. In addition, even if we do not consider the international and domestic situation, only from the perspective of frequency band and technology, and even if China Unicom and China Telecom do not merge in the legal sense, the various strategic cooperation started from the joint construction of 5g network can be achieved. It can be said that there are practical requirements for the policy to allow the merger of the two, and spontaneous cooperation is also the practical needs of the two.

The global 5g deployment has begun, and the domestic 5g test has also entered the implementation stage. It can be said that the 5g era, even if it has not yet arrived, also puts forward higher requirements for regulators and practitioners. In addition, from the perspective of seizing the global leading advantage and fully supporting the national strategy, under the premise of maintaining a certain degree of competition, merger and reorganization within the licensing industry should be optional. Operators can "release water and fish" for other industries, and the state should also support the "water storage capacity" of the communication industry. Starting from the joint construction of 5g network, China Unicom and China Telecom are expected to work together to meet new challenges.