Commercialization of 5th Generation Wireless Systems in China has a Long Way to Go
On October 31, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced the official release of 5th Generation Wireless Systems (5G) by China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom. Since then, 5G technology can be used by common cell phone users without any requirements but a phone that supports 5G network. 5G technology has been expected by Chinese people for a long time, and many believe that the communication would enter a new age after the release of 5G. However, there is few feedbacks in the public, and people, even the whole Chinese society, are not ready for the 5G generation yet.
Why people want 5G in their phones? For the personal use of 5G in the cell phone, users are believed to have faster download speeds, low latency, and more capacity and connectivity. However, the use of 5G has not be common accepted by the common users yet. Increased price, limited location, and unstable network are all reasons make people unsatisfied and disappointed on the accessibility of the 5G technology.
5G is cheaper than 4G, but 5G package is significantly higher than the 4G package. The cheapest 5G package is 128 RMB, while normally the 4G plan would cost around 20 RMB. This new 5G package is over six times as much as the 4G plan, but does the service 5G user receive is six times better than the 4G users? Unfortunately, as a new implementation, 5G signal has not covered the whole China yet and is only available on 5G cell phones. According to the schedule disclosed by the operators, 5G signal stations can only cover core areas for the cities that are not in the first tier by the end of the year of 2020. In other words, counties and towns would not be available to 5G signal in the year. Another problem the 5G users face is to purchase a new cell phone. 5G users must use the new 5G cell phone to access 5G plans, and check the validity of the location they live in. However, this extra cost of new phone and new plans are not the only disadvantage 5G user must tolerate. As the penetration of 5G signal station is weak, people may have to search the signal outside the building during the working time. The good news is that these problems have been realized, and more developments would happen later in this year to improve the situation.
(http://news.yesky.com/hotnews/57/709044557.shtml)

Yuejun Sun