China ended May with a total of 899.3 million subscribers in the 5G segment
Shipments of 5G mobile phones in China increased by 6% year-on-year to nearly 17.74 million units in May, Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported, citing data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT).
The volume of shipped 5G devices represented 85.3% of China’s total mobile phone shipments during the month, according to the CAICT, a research institute under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
In the first five months of 2022, China’s mobile phone shipments declined 27.1% year-on-year to 108 million units, of which 79.7% were 5G mobile phones.
Meanwhile, China shipped 106 million smartphones in the January-May period, accounting for 98.2% of the total mobile phone shipments in the period.
The official data also showed that Chinese phone makers contributed to 83.8% of the total domestic mobile phone shipments in the January-May period.
According to the “The Mobile Economy China” report, which was published by the GSMA earlier this year, 5G connections in the country will represent 52% of total mobile lines in 2025, compared to 29% in 2021.
The report also stated that mainland China represents the single largest 5G market in the world, with 5G connections accounting for over three-quarters of the global total at the end of 2021.
China ended May with a total of 899.3 million subscribers in the 5G segment, according to the carriers’ latest available figures. Chinese operators recorded a net gain of 30.18 million 5G subscribers in May.
China Mobile, the world’s largest operator in terms of subscribers, added a total of 18.21 million 5G subscribers during last month. The operator said it ended May with 495.13 million 5G subscribers, compared to 221.95 million 5G customers in May 2021.
China Mobile had added a total of 108.32 million subscribers in the 5G segment during the first five months of the year.
Rival operator China Unicom said it added a total of 4.93 million 5G subscribers during May. The carrier ended the month with 179.70 million 5G subscribers.
Meanwhile, China Telecom added 7.04 million 5G subscribers last month to take its total 5G subscribers base to 224.47 million. During the first five months of the year, the telco had added a total of 36.67 million 5G subscribers.
Chinese telcos have already deployed nearly 1.6 million 5G base stations nationwide. Local operators aim to build 600,000 new 5G base stations this year, including 134,000 already built in the first quarter. China expects to end this year with nearly 2 million 5G base stations, according to previous reports.
Chinese carriers reportedly deployed a total of 654,000 base stations nationwide during last year.
China Broadnet has recently launched commercial 5G services in the domestic market. The operator already supplies cable services and became the country’s fourth operator when formally inaugurated in 2020, having previously acquired a license for commercial 5G services in 2019. The carrier was initially known as China Broadcasting Network before rebranding earlier this year.
China Broadnet will use 5G infrastructure owned by China’s largest mobile operator China Mobile.
