China now has 86,000 5G base stations to support development of the next-generation ultrafast mobile Internet, an official said on Monday.
The number of 5G base stations of China's three telecom operators --China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom -- will rise to 130,000 by the end of the year, Chen Zhaoxiong, vice minister of Industry and Information Technology, said at the sixth World Internet Conference.
He said users will experience wide, connected 5G access instead of separated zones available in cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hangzhou.
Even if the 5G opportunity takes more time to play out, Barron's believe there is still a powerful near-term investment opportunity for the technology: Chinese infrastructure.
In a story published on October 4, Barron's argue that 5G may come together slowly in the US market, but China is serious about winning the race.
Behind this conclusion, Multiple Wall Street analysts are getting more optimistic about China's 5G buildout.
For instance, Rosenblatt Securities notes that local governments in China are providing subsidies to “speed up 5G network deployments.” As a result, Rosenblatt says, more than 300 cities in China will have 5G networks by the end of next year.
Even Rod Hall, the Goldman Sachs 5G skeptic, expects 120 million 5G smartphones to ship next year, largely because of China's aggressive buildout.
In a report this past week, Piper Jaffray analyst Harsh Kumar cited a Chinese think tank that sees China-based companies spending $411 billion on 5G networks from 2020 to 2030.
Of the 600,000 5G base stations expected to be rolled out worldwide next year, Kumar says half will be deployed in China: “We expect 2020 global [5G] deployments to largely be driven by the Chinese market.”
