China's 5G base stations increase to 3.22 million: IT ministry

Beijing: China built nearly 3.22 million 5G base stations by the end of October, accounting for 28.1 per cent of all its mobile base stations as part of its efforts to speed up the digital transformation of the economy, the government said on Wednesday.

China is making steady progress in the construction of its 5G network in an effort to propel the digital and intelligent transformation of its real economy, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said.

China's state-run three telecom giants -- China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom -- collectively had a total of 754 million 5G mobile phone users by the end of October, the ministry said, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

The ministry's data said that in the first ten months, the telecommunication industry had combined business revenue of firms in the sector totalled approximately 1.4 trillion yuan (about USD 197.9 billion) up 6.9 per cent year on year, the report said.

The development of 5G was seen as key to China’s digital transformation of all sectors.

"China, in particular, has been very proactive in scaling the use of 5G in vertical, establishing new business models to drive wider usage across sectors and speeding up digital transformation in everything from mining to ports and manufacturing, showing that as 5G grows it can bring endless potential to all business sectors," according to John Hoffman, CEO of GSMA Ltd., an international mobile operator association.

The number of 5G mobile connections in China will likely reach one billion by 2025, he told the World Internet Conference in China’s Wuzhen city early this month.