5G Expected to Drive USD$1.16 Trillion in Chinese Digital Consumption

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The China Academy of Information and Communication Technology (CAICT) expects the commercial application of 5G technology in China to drive a sharp rise in digital-related consumption.

A report from CAICT forecasts that by 2025 cumulative investment in 5G network construction will reach 1.2 trillion yuan, which will in turn drive further investment of 3.5 trillion yuan.

China’s big three telecoms operators have also dramatically raised their budget for 5G-related investment in 2020 to approximately 180.3 billion yuan in total.

On the consumer side CAICT forecasts that during the period from 2020 to 2025 5G commercial applications will directly drive 8.2 trillion yuan (approx. USD$1.16 trillion) in information consumption (信息消费), of which smart phone and wearable device upgrades are expected to unleash 4.3 trillion yuan in consumption alone.

China issued its first 5G commercial licenses on 6 June 2019, while data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) indicates that Chinese telecoms companies have already built over 250,000 stations. China Unicom has just announced that its usable 5G stations are already approaching 130,000 in total, while MIIT forecasts that 5G stations will exceed 600,000 by the end of 2020.

Chinese 5G users currently exceed 36 million, with total domestic 5G phone deliveries at 59.85 million as of the end of May, and expected to reach 180 million by the end of 2020.

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