The proposed 5G investments will boost the performance of the infrastructure vendors in the Chinese market, Strategy Analytics said.
Huawei dominates China’s 5G market now. Huawei’s products and solutions can meet the requirements of Chinese operators. “It is expected that Huawei will continue to be the biggest winner in the Chinese market in 2021,” Guang Yang, Director of Networks and Service Platforms at Strategy Analytics, said.
Strategy Analytics predicts that 2021 will be another bumper year for infrastructure vendors in China, as Chinese mobile operators continue their large scale 5G network rollout.
China Mobile and China Broadcasting Network have kicked off the procurement process for base station equipment for a 5G network in the 700 MHz band. The two companies will purchase more than 480,000 700 MHz 5G base stations this year. The 700MHz 5G network will be a significant boost to the 5G infrastructure market and will also be a catalyst for further 5G development in China.
The total number of 5G base stations in China could reach 1.7 million by the end of 2021, according to an executive at China Telecom.
Given the better propagation characteristics, this deployment schedule will give the 700 MHz network a significant coverage advantage over the existing mid-band 5G deployments in China.
“This will allow China Mobile and the CBN to push 5G into more remote communities, to deliver a better 5G indoor user experience, and to open up more lower-bandwidth 5G use cases which are dependent on extensive coverage for success,” Phil Kendall, Executive Director, Strategy Analytics Service Provider Group, said.