Image Source : China Visual

BEIJING, October 26 (TMTPOST) — Three years after the commercialization of 5G, the technology is entering the stage of fast development, Huawei's rotating Chair Hu Houkun said at the 2022 Global MBB Forum in Bangkok, Thailand, on Tuesday.

Significant progress has been made in network deployment, consumer business and industry applications, he said.  The global telecom industry should be proud of the progress made over the past few years but should also realize that 5G technology still has great potentials since it accounts for less than 20 per cent of the traffic of many telecom operators, he added. The next step is for the telecom industry to develop various services, such as cloud and system integration, and work together to advance 5G networks, applications and industries to achieve leapfrog development.

As of October 2022, more than 230 operators worldwide launched commercial 5G services, with more than 3 million 5G sites deployed and 700 million 5G users. With the rapid advancement of network deployment, 5G is leaping from commericalization to rapid development.

5G consumer-facing services remain the pillar for operators' revenue. Hu mentioned that about 60% of 5G traffic is used to transmit HD video, making the Internet traffic used by 5G users more than twice that of 4G users. The average revenue contributed by each user has increased by 20%-40%, driving the steady growth of operators' revenue.

In addition, 5G-oriented applications are becoming a new engine of revenue growth. New 5G-driven applications have emerged in several global markets, such as oil and gas, manufacturing, and transportation. For example, in 2021, Chinese operators had over 3,000 commercial 5G projects, generating over RMB 3.4 billion ($473.36 million), making 5G the fastest-growing business for operators.

To continue exploring the market opportunities brought by 5G technology, the following step is to improve network construction and users’ experience, according to Hu. 5G networks only cover about 30 per cent of the world's population, and there is still plenty of room for improvement.