Report: China releases 5G licences for commercial use

On the afternoon of August 25, at the Guqiao Mine of Huaihe Energy Coal Company, the staff used the mobile 5G SA network to have the first high-definition voice call and the first video call in the underground coal mine with the ground personnel.

Eighteen provinces in China including Shandong and Anhui have rolled out plans to construct a total of more than 413,000 5G base stations this year, as China speeds up the investment in new infrastructure to bolster consumption amid the impact of coronavirus outbreak.

This is in response to the central government’s call to build "new infrastructure" projects to counter the economic fallout due to the coronavirus and boost the country's economy in the long term. New infrastructure, different from traditional infrastructure construction such as railways, roads, and airports, can be understood as new public facilities serving the needs of new industrialisation. 

In 2019, China launched commercial 5G services and commissioned 126,000 5G base stations

China plans to build more than 50,000 5G base stations across 50 cities this year

An EV consumes about 55 kg of copper on average, two to three times of that for traditional diesel or gasoline vehicles

This is up significantly from the current 3,000

Stocks of 5G-related companies jumped after the news release on the website of MIIT

It will drive digital economic output by 15.2 trillion yuan

Beijing aims to develop its 5G-related industry to achieve 200 billion yuan of revenue by 2022