Telecom operators in China will officially roll out 5G service packages on November 1, Sichuan-based newspaper NBD reported Friday citing sources.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will on October 31 hold a launching ceremony for 5G commercial use during a industry event next week, the report added.
With 5G commercial use looming in China, user participation was rising fast.
As of October 9, China Mobile saw 5.922 million users register for its 5G package. The number for smaller players China Telecom and China Unicom were 2.078 million and 2.003 million respectively, bringing the total to 10 million.
All three carriers have offered incentives to encourage consumers to sign up for 5G services early. China Mobile has offered a 30 per cent discount to users who have been in its network for more than five years, and a 20 per cent discount to those in its network for less than that period.
But the packages will not be cheap. As cnTechPost mentioned previously, a leaked document shows that China Unicom, one of China's three main telecom service providers, is offering 5G services to early customers with the monthly fees starting at 199 yuan ($28).
China Unicom 5G fees leaked: starting at 199 yuan, 40 GB data included
The package contains 500 minutes of phone calls and 40 GB of domestic data. The download speed under this package will be as high as 500 Mbps.
For those who use up all the data quota, the extra charge will be 5 yuan per GB.
This package is quite expensive to a regular user in China, where the average monthly bill for telecom service in 48 yuan.
But good news is Unicom is offering discounts in its pre-orders. All users are eligible to a 20 percent off, and if you are with Unicom for 3 years or more then the discount can go up to 30 percent.
