5G officially arrives in China

Chinese telecoms officially launched their 5G services today. China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom are now offering data plans that begin from CNY128 (about $18/€16) for 30 GB of data and go as high as CNY599 ($85/€76) for 300 gigs. Interestingly enough, plans for 4G connectivity are in a similar price range, so the next-gen network commands no premium.

Having the three major carriers on board, China automatically becomes the country with the biggest 5G network in the world. Authorities’ plans include the installation of over 50,000 5G base stations in key Chinese cities; some, like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, already are covered by the 5G network.

Huawei just managed to move 100,000 units of the Mate 30 5G family in just a minute so there's plenty of interest by the consumers too.

According to the SCMP, people that are already paying CNY120 or above for data in China will be eager to switch to 5G. The government expects that by 2020 over 110 million users will have switched to the new network, representing a 7% penetration rate, twice as higher as the current penetration leader South Korea (with 3% of the population having access to 5G).

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