China's 5G users exceed 26 million, but many do not use 5G phones

China's 5G package users exceed 26 million, but a large number of users do not use 5G mobile phones.

As operators have successively announced their progress in 5G, as of February this year, the number of Chinese 5G package users (China Mobile + China Telecom) has reached 26.13 million.  

However, China Unicom did not announce 5G package users in its 2019 annual report and February operating data.

According to the 2019 annual reports issued by the three major operators, in terms of 5G base station construction, in 2019 China Mobile opened more than 50,000 5G base stations and provided 5G commercial services in 50 cities.

As of the end of 2019, China Telecom has invested 9.3 billion yuan, built 40,000 5G base stations, and shared more than 20,000 5G base stations of China Unicom. The total scale of 5G base stations in use exceeds 60,000 stations, which has covered more than 50 cities.

China Unicom's capital expenditure in 2019 was 56.4 billion yuan, of which 5G capital expenditure was 7.9 billion yuan. Available 5G base stations> 60,000 stations, covering 50 cities, of which China Unicom's construction> 40,000 stations.

In 2020, China Unicom's capital expenditure is expected to be 70 billion yuan, of which 5G capital expenditure is expected to be 35 billion yuan, and China Telecom strives to complete the construction and sharing of 250,000 5G base stations in the third quarter, covering all cities in the country.  And started 5G network evolution to SA upgrade, commercialization in the middle of the year.

In terms of 5G package users, by the end of February 2020, China Mobile's 5G package customers had reached 15.4 million; by the end of February 2020, China Telecom's 5G package users had reached 10.73 million; and China Unicom did not report in the 2019 annual report  And 5G package subscribers were announced in February operating data.

At present, the total number of 5G users of China Mobile + China Telecom has reached 26.13 million.  However, according to the domestic mobile phone shipment data released by the Information and Communication Technology Institute, 53.7G mobile phones will be shipped in 13.697 million units in 2019, and 7.845 million 5G mobile phones will be shipped from January to February 2020.

That is, as of February this year, the domestic 5G mobile phone shipments totaled 21.614 million.  Even if China Unicom does not include the unpublished number of 5G plan subscribers, the total number of 5G plan subscribers of China Mobile + China Telecom exceeds the cumulative shipments of 5G mobile phones in China by nearly 5 million.

Except that some 5G mobile phone users have two 5G mobile phone cards, this means that a large number of users have applied for 5G packages, but did not purchase 5G mobile phones and use 5G to access the Internet.