China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology （MIIT）issued the 5G licenses to China Telecom, China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Broadcasting Network on Thursday, June 6, 2019. China became the fifth country to launch commercial 5G services.
After the license release, three leading Chinese telecommunication carriers planned to expand their 5G networks and purchase a large number of devices. China Mobile plans to finish upgrading 30,000 – 50,000 base stations and invest about RMB 17.2 billion, China Telecom to construct 20,000 base stations and invest RMB 9 billion, and China Unicom to build 20,000 base stations and invest RMB 6-8 billion.
Terminal providers have been waiting for the license. China Unicom has announced a series of terminal providers with 5G capability, including Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo, which had already launched 5G smartphones in the overseas market.
China holds about 30 percent of 5G technology patents and the announcement brings huge opportunities for firms like Huawei and ZTE. Overseas firms like Ericsson, Intel, Nokia and Qualcomm also share China’s achievements through research and testing, said the MIIT.
Sources: http://www.shangzhiip.com/index.php?m=content&c=index&a=show&catid=46&id=848 http://www.ijiandao.com/2b/baijia/280120.html