Chinese government to issue 5G licenses to 3 major state-owned companies – to rival the US

Recently the Nihon Keizai Shimbun Electronic Edition reported the following:

中国政府、国有大手3社に5G免許交付へ　米に対抗

ファーウェイ 中国・台湾

2019/6/3 19:14

【北京=多部田俊輔】中国政府は近く国有通信大手3社に次世代通信規格「5G」の免許を交付する。トランプ米政権が5Gの技術を多く持つ中国通信機器最大手、華為技術（ファーウェイ）の排除を進めていることに対抗し、中国政府は5G免許の交付で総額で20兆円規模とされる5G投資を加速させ、ファーウェイなど中国企業を支援する構えだ。

中国国営の新華社が3日、中国政府で情報通信行政を担う工業情報化省が近く5Gの免許を交付すると報じた。同省関係者は、早ければ6月中にも中国移動通信集団、中国電信集団、中国聯合網絡通信集団の国有通信大手3社に与えるとしている。

業界関係者によると、通信大手3社合計で15億件以上の携帯電話の契約件数を抱える中国の5G投資は総額で20兆円に達する見通し。日本ではNTTドコモとKDDIがそれぞれ5年で1兆円程度の投資を見込むのに比べて投資規模は桁違いに大きい。

中国政府はもともと2019年に試験的な商用サービス、20年に本格的な商用サービスを始める計画だった。中国移動（チャイナモバイル）など国有3社の上場子会社3社が3月に明らかにした19年の5G投資の合計は5千億円にとどまっていた。

3日の新華社の報道によれば、工業情報化省は「19年を5Gの商用元年」と位置づけた。業界関係者は「5G投資が前倒しになる可能性が出てきた」と指摘する。中国移動が1月に実施した5G基地局の入札でも半分はファーウェイが占めており、ファーウェイの収益押し上げを狙っている可能性もある。

ファーウェイや小米（シャオミ）などスマートフォン（スマホ）中国大手は5G対応製品の国内投入の準備を進めている。5G免許交付にあわせて新製品を投入すれば、勢いを欠く国内消費を押し上げる効果が期待できる。

トランプ米政権の圧力にもかかわらず、工業情報化省は5Gの研究開発でフィンランドのノキア、スウェーデンのエリクソン、米国のクアルコム、インテルなど外国企業と深い協力によって5Gの商用インフラが整ったと強調する。外国企業の中国市場参入を歓迎すると対外開放もアピールした。

米中貿易摩擦がハイテク覇権争いに発展し、ハイテク産業の供給網（サプライチェーン）が米中で分断される懸念が浮上している。中国の巨大な5Gの商機にどう向き合うのか。米国半導体大手を含む外国企業は難しい経営判断を迫られそうだ。

Translation

[Beijing = Shunsuke Taida] The Chinese government would issue licenses for the next-generation communication standard the "5G" to three major state-owned telecommunications companies. In response to the US government's Trump administration's exclusion of Huawei, the largest telecommunications equipment company with many 5G technologies, the Chinese government by granting 5G licenses estimated to worth 20 trillion yen in total was planning to accelerate 5G investment to support Chinese companies such as Huawei.

On the 3rd, China's state-owned Xinhua News Agency reported that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology that was in charge of information and communications administration of the Chinese government would grant 5G licenses soon. According to the Ministry, permits would be handed over to China Mobile Communications Group, China Telecom Group, and China Integrated Network Telecommunication Group, the three major state-owned communications companies as early as June.

According to sources of that business sector, China's 5G investment among these three major telecommunications carriers which had a total number of mobile phone contracts over 1.5 billion was expected to reach 20 trillion yen in total. Compared to NTT DoCoMo and KDDI each expecting investments of around ¥ 1 trillion in five years in Japan, the scale of investment was by far much larger.

The Chinese government originally planned to launch experimental commercial services in 2019 and full-scale commercial services in 20 years. The total amount of 5G investment in 2019 revealed by the three state-owned companies of their three listed subsidiaries such as China Mobile (China Mobile) in March was only 500 billion yen.

According to a report by Xinhua on the 3rd, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology had positioned 2019 as "the first year of 5G commercial business." The industry related people pointed out that "the 5G investment has come to the fore." Half of the 5G base station bid conducted by China Mobile in January was taken up by Huawei, which might be aiming at boosting Huawei's earnings.

Major Chinese smart phones such as Huawei and Xiaomi were preparing to launch 5G products in the country. If new products were introduced in line with 5G licensing, it was expected to boost domestic consumption that was now without momentum.

Despite the pressure of the US Trump administration, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology emphasized that 5G commercial infrastructure had been set up by deep cooperation with foreign companies such as Nokia in Finland, Ericsson in Sweden, Qualcomm and Intel in the US in 5G research and development. It welcomed foreign companies to enter the Chinese market, and it also appealed to opening it to the public.

The US-China trade friction had developed into a high-tech supremacy contest, and there was a concern that the supply network of the high-tech industry (supply chain) would be divided among the US and China. How to face this China's huge 5G business opportunity? Foreign companies, including US semiconductor giants, were likely to face difficult business decisions.

          It seems that China is ahead of other countries in using 5G technology in the country. One advantage of a one-party government is its high efficiency, due to the fact that it has absolute control over the mass media and there is no opposite parties to interfere with all government decisions.