China built 887,000 5G base stations last year, and the total number of 5G base stations has reached 2.312,000, accounting for more than 60% of the global total, according to a communications industry statistics bulletin for 2022 released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
Steady progress has been made in the construction of 5G networks, and network coverage capacity continues to improve. In 2022, a total of 180.3 billion yuan in 5G investment was completed by the three basic telecom companies and China Tower Co., LTD., accounting for 43 percent of telecom fixed asset investment.By the end of 2022, the total number of 5G base stations completed and opened in China accounted for 21.3% of the total number of mobile base stations, accounting for 7 percentage points higher than the end of the previous year. While continuing to deepen urban coverage in prefecture-level cities, 5G construction is gradually extending to towns and rural areas as needed.
5G users account for 30%, leading the global level of development. By the end of 2022, China had 1.683 billion mobile phone users, and the penetration rate had risen to 119.2 phones per 100 people, higher than the global average of 106.2 phones per 100 people. Among them, 5G mobile phone users reached 561 million, accounting for 33.3 percent of mobile phone users, up 11.7 percentage points from the end of last year, and 2.75 times the global average of 12.1 percent.
The application of 5G convergence continues to expand, and digital development continues to play a stronger role in supporting development. In 2022, the achievements of 5G convergence application in smart manufacturing, smart healthcare, smart education, digital government and other fields continue to emerge. China has invested in over 4,000 "5G+ industrial Internet" projects, and built a number of fully 5G connected factories. Telecom companies have used 5G slicing technology to provide more than 14,000 5G virtual private networks, helping accelerate digital transformation in various industries.
