With recent reports suggesting China’s 5G commercial use looming, today there is official information coming out confirming it will start this week.
According to the agenda of the PT Expo China 2019, the launching ceremony for China’s 5G commercial use will be held at 9:25 am on October 31.
The event will be hosted by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), China’s telecoms regulator.
Shortly after the launching ceremony, local telecoms regulators and China’s three telecom operators -- China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom – will also hold a launching ceremony at 10:00 am, according a report from Chinese paper Yicai.
Last week, local paper NBD reported citing sources as saying the MIIT will hold a launching ceremony for 5G commercial use on October 31, and telecom operators will officially roll out 5G service packages on November 1.
Report: China 5G commercial use will officially start on Nov 1
As cnTechPost reported previously, the MIIT in June issued 5G licenses to the three telecom operators, which all rolled out pilot programs for users to try out the service.
It proved that 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. 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).
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.
