By the end of last year, there were more than 1.4 million 5G base stations in China, and a 5G network with the largest scale and the most advanced technology in the world had been built. The number of 5G mobile terminal connections reached 518 million. All prefecture-level cities, more than 98% of counties and 80% of towns have realized 5G network coverage. A while back, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released the latest report card of 5G construction in China. The further improvement of the breadth and depth of 5G network coverage will help push the information and communication industry to achieve a new leap and add a bright color to China's economy.
Behind the gratifying numbers are realistic and sensible application scenarios. The latest achievements of 5G construction provide a new experience of watching the games from a 360 degree perspective for the audience outside the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, make patients in remote areas enjoy "cloud diagnosis and treatment", and enable children in rural schools to share high-quality educational resources remotely. Cloud services and online convenience also make it possible to control remote devices in smart factories, and the machine vision quality inspection on the assembly line is more sensitive. At present, there are more than 10,000 5G application innovation cases in many fields such as information consumption, real economy and people's livelihood services, covering 22 important industries of the national economy. 5G application is becoming an important driving force for enabling thousands of industries to accelerate digital transformation.
The key is to stimulate the new driving force of economic development with industrial digitization and promote the large-scale development of 5G applications. In recent years, 5G network coverage has been continuously extended by increasing investment in new infrastructure and moderately advanced 5G network construction. From the perspective of investment effectiveness and accelerating the development of new kinetic engines, the goal of promoting use by construction is more urgent. At present, while China's 5G technology has taken root in various fields, there are still deficiencies in application effect, integration depth and coverage field. Promoting 5G application in various industries is faced with difficult technology integration and large-scale replication. It is urgent to coordinate the forces of all parties and accelerate the formation of a benign development model of the combination of construction and use.
To promote the use of construction, construction is the foundation. We should steadily and orderly carry out 5G network construction and continue to increase the coverage of counties and towns. We should also take a point to an area and have a definite aim. By improving the in-depth coverage level in densely populated areas such as transportation hubs and shopping centers, as well as in key industries such as industry and medical treatment, we should encourage priority to explore 5G integrated applications in these key areas and key fields, and expand the pilot demonstration to scale promotion, so as to explore the path to accelerate the large-scale commercial use of 5G.
To promote 5G application, we should hold our fingers into a fist. The main battlefield of 5G application is the enabling real economy, which is long-term, complex and systematic. From the horizontal perspective, the digital level and development stage of different industries and enterprises are different, and the demand varies greatly. From the vertical perspective, there are many links and long processes from technology research and development to industrialization in a bid to meet the personalized needs of industry applications. It is urgent to strengthen the adaptation and support of 5G technology and standards to the needs of the industry. To better promote the 5G application enabled real economy, we not only need multiple entities upstream and downstream of the industrial chain to tackle key core technologies and accelerate the research and development of multi-level 5G industry chips, industry modules and other related products to meet differentiated needs, but also need the cooperation of relevant departments to increase support and guidance, so as to speed up the replication and promotion of breakthrough progress and mature applications to thousands of industries.
The general secretary Xi Jinping stressed that we should promote the deep integration of digital technology and the real economy, enable the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, give birth to new industries, new forms and new models, and constantly strengthen, optimize and expand China's digital economy." Promoting the large-scale development of 5G applications is conducive to accelerating the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries and giving birth to new industries, new business forms and new models. With the continuous growth of new needs such as digital production, life and social governance, 5G application has a very broad development space. To seize the opportunity, take advantage of the momentum, continuously improve 5G network coverage, and accelerate the in-depth integration of 5G and thousands of industries, we will be able to provide solid support for digital transformation, intelligent upgrading, integration and innovation in all fields of economy and society.
