PRESS RELEASE: Digital transformation is accelerating across the globe, and 5G technologies are playing a key role in stimulating socioeconomic development.

China, as a pioneer in global 5G development, attaches great importance to the development of public mobile 5G communications. Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) licensed Chinese operators to refarm frequency bands below 3000 MHz (sub-3 GHz) from 2G, 3G, and 4G to 5G to improve 5G network coverage and communications capacity. This will better meet the uplink bandwidth and latency needs of industry applications such as industrial Internet, Internet of Things (IoT), and Internet of Vehicles (IoV) to stimulate 5G industry development.

Sub-3 GHz Is Ideal for 5G

Sub-3 GHz plays a key role in 5G networks thanks to its low radio propagation loss, long transmission distance, and robust industry ecosystem.

  • Low radio propagation loss: This allows for a wider coverage area, which is key to providing stable network services in both urban and rural areas.
  • Long transmission distance: Compared with higher frequency bands, sub-3 GHz signals can move around more obstacles to reach over longer distances. This advantage is critical to improving 5G network coverage, especially in rural and remote areas, to allow more users to enjoy 5G services.
  • Robust industry ecosystem: Sub-3 GHz spectrum is the way forward worldwide. It has mature standards and a robust terminal ecosystem for network interconnection and terminal compatibility.

These advantages make sub-3 GHz spectrum the optimal choice for continued 5G construction. The spectrum can provide basic network coverage and capacity to meet growing mobile communications needs.

All Bands to 5G Is a Must for the Industry

It is well known that the sub-3 GHz frequency band is used as the golden frequency band. Sub-3 GHz 5G has great potential for fulfilling new service needs and transforming user experience.

  • Improving spectral efficiency: Radio spectrum resources are vital to mobile networks. By refarming sub-3 GHz for 5G, 5G will have access to more spectrum. 5G is more spectrum efficient than its predecessors, so sub-3 GHz 5G will greatly increase network speeds, connection stability, latency, and coverage. This will allow for larger-scale 5G network construction.
  • Meeting service and development needs: User network requirements for uplink speeds, coverage, and latency are growing rapidly with the emergence of new applications such as mobile AI. However, limited spectrum and site resources make refarming other frequency bands a necessity for operators seeking 5G network evolution. Sub-3 GHz 5G will help operators enable more extensive connections, more diverse applications, and more complex architectures, and provide more efficient 5G services to meet new service needs.
  • Upgrading user experience: Operators seeking competitiveness in 5G services must maximize existing spectrum utilization. Sub-3 GHz refarming will add a converged bandwidth of over 100 MHz to 5G to help build foundation networks with superior user experience. Operators can flexibly combine spectrum resources to develop networks centered on customer experience to meet current and future user needs.

China’s development of the 5G spectrum can serve as a reference for operators in other regions. Site and spectrum resources are limited for every operator. Refarming existing frequency bands will improve 5G network coverage through multi-band converged networking. This is significant for operators, mobile phone manufacturers, consumers, and industries. As 5G technologies become mature and their applications expand, full sub-3 GHz evolution to 5G will maximize spectrum resource utilization, satisfy the growing service needs, and improve the performance and service quality of 5G networks. This transformation will create new opportunities across industries and enable the comprehensive digitalization of society.