China Allocates Shared Spectrum for Indoor Use, CBN gets Third Spectrum for 5G Network

China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has granted licenses to China Telecom, China Unicom and China Broadcasting Network (CBN) to share 5G spectrum for indoor coverage in the latest push to commercialise the new mobile technology. The 3 operators will share the 3.3GHz to 3.4GHz band for indoor coverage. The intention is that this will reduce China Mobile's monopoly as it has already got a a big chunk of spectrum in 2.6GHz as well as 100 MHz in 4.9 GHz band.

A report in International Finance states:

China Broadcasting Network (CBN) has received approval to deploy a 5G network across 16 cities using a spectrum in 4.9GHz band. It plans to have a nationwide coverage by 2021 after it signed a deal with State Grid last year. 

CBN is a broadcasting company headquartered in China. The telecom provider’s initial deployment will cover major cities such as Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Shenzhen among 12 others. 

In last October, CNB started trialling standalone technology on the 700MHz band in Shanghai. The telecom provider is working on an investment worth $35.8 million for its 5G network. 

CBN received its commercial 5G licence in June when the country’s big three telecom operators also received the licence. The operators are China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom. 

China Mobile received a licence for 260MHz of spectrum across 2.6GHz and 4.8GHz bands. China Telecom and China Unicom each received 100MHz in 3.5MHz band — and they operate jointly for their 5G deployments. 

Mobile World Live reported yesterday that China Mobile is reaching 7 million 5G subscribers soon. Joseph Waring reported:

China Mobile, the largest operator in the world, signed up 6.7 million 5G users in the space of three months, with 74,000 base stations deployed in 50 cities by end-January, C114.net reported.

It reportedly installed 24,000 5G base stations in January.

The subscriber numbers quoted would place China Mobile as the largest 5G player in the world. In November 2019 it set the aggressive target of signing up 70 million 5G users by end-2020.

This report contains this nice picture of spectrum allocation to the operators in China, it's not up to date but still quite detailed.

(click to enlarge)

Related Posts:

• Operator Watch Blog: China's Synchronized 5G Launch
• Operator Watch Blog: Current IMT Spectrum Allocation in China