On October 31, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology co-held an initiation ceremony of 5G commercialization with China’s telecom giants, including China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom. Commercial 5G networks are available in 50 cities in China now, including Chongqing. Meanwhile, the three telecom operators start to offer 5G data packages to its users, priced at a minimum of RMB 128 per month.

On October 31, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology co-held an initiation ceremony of 5G commercialization.

Users can access the 5G network with 5G smartphones. Based on the original 4G data package, they will enjoy a peak speed of 300 Mbps. Specifically, China Mobile prices the data plans at RMB 128/month (30GB data allowance + 200 min voice calls), RMB 198/month (60GB + 500 min), RMB 298/month (100GB + 800 min), RMB 398/month (150GB + 1200 min) and RMB 598/month (300GB + 3000 min).

5G packages enjoy three features: containing larger data allowance with the same price; enjoying the 10 times faster speed than 4G network; involving more membership benefits.

Faster speed is accompanied by more data consumed. How to set the unit price of data? Based on data plans of the three telecom giants, more expensive ones can enjoy faster speed and the higher limit on speed.

China has launched over 10 kinds of 5G smartphones, with a minimum selling price of RMB 3,600. In the early 2020, the market will see more diversified 5G smartphones with better cost performance. Qualcomm China Chairman Frank Meng said: “The company has worked with many partners to release 5G smartphones in China, the world’s largest smartphone market, making the 5G network accessible.”