The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology recently issued the country's first corporate 5G private network frequency license to China Commercial Aircraft Co., Ltd. According to the popular saying in the industry, COMAC has obtained the first 5G "private network license".

The issuance of this frequency license means that China's 5G private network market has truly entered the "1+N" stage. As we all know, from the day of its birth, 5G has aimed its main application targets at thousands of industries. After more than three years of development, the development trend of my country's "5G+Industrial Internet" has been rising all the way: From the perspective of network scale, my country has built the world's largest and technologically advanced 5G SA network, with more than 2.22 million 5G base stations, accounting for the world's total From the perspective of application scope, a large number of pillar industries of the national economy, such as aircraft, ships, automobiles, electronics, energy, and mining, have carried out the innovative practice of "5G+Industrial Internet", and there are more than 4,000 projects under construction across the country. A batch of high-level 5G fully connected factory benchmarks; from the perspective of future development, 5G will accelerate its promotion to medical, transportation, education and other fields, driving artificial intelligence, AR/VR, 8K display and other new technologies to become more mature, driving new business formats such as Internet of Vehicles Flourish.

Obviously, the momentum of 5G empowering and driving the digitalization of thousands of industries has already picked up. But as the author wrote in a comment not long ago, although 5G has been applied in 40 industries out of 97 major categories of the national economy, it is undeniable that the application chain of 5G to B is too long and the application period of the scene is long. problem. How to solve this problem, the development of 5G private network has been placed high expectations.

As for how to do the 5G private network, over the past three years of 5G development, the industry has many different opinions: some advocate "combination of public and private", which is based on the 5G private network authorized by the operator; some advocate self-built private network, that is, based on various The 5G private network frequency band allocated by the market, vertical industries build their own 5G private network. Different viewpoints have their own merits.

The three major domestic operators have launched many 5G private network solutions for the enterprise market, and have achieved great results in the past three years. At present, there are more than 4,000 "5G+Industrial Internet" projects under construction across the country, and the cultivation of a number of high-level 5G fully connected factory benchmarks is evidence. However, the 5G private network model of "public-private combination" advocated by operators cannot solve fundamental problems for many large enterprises; while self-built private networks also face problems such as operation and maintenance, frequency, and security.

The 5G private network is a complex end-to-end system that integrates CT, IT, and OT. During the integration process, there is a huge professional knowledge and technology "gap" between the ICT industry and vertical industries. To fill this "gap", operators, equipment suppliers, system integrators, cloud service providers, information technology service providers, and vertical industries need to work together. Therefore, for enterprises, whether it is "public-private combination" or self-built private network, the development of 5G private network can only be selected according to specific needs and combined with their own capabilities.

From the perspective of the competent authority, which model to adopt for the 5G private network depends on the enterprise itself, but one thing is clear: anything that is conducive to the development of 5G and digital construction should be strongly supported. Regarding the development of 5G private networks, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has an open attitude. It not only strongly supports the development of 5G by operators, but also adheres to a scientific, open and stable attitude in terms of dedicated spectrum for enterprises to build their own 5G private networks. The issuance of the country's first corporate 5G private network frequency license to COMAC this time is the best interpretation of this attitude.

The author mentioned in a previous review article that the government can take more active measures to accelerate the development of 5G industry applications, such as promoting the construction of 5G industry private networks in a moderately advanced manner, and speeding up the formulation of standards for 5G industry private networks. The issuance of the frequency license for the 5G private network this time has given the authorities a boost in accelerating the development of the 5G private network.

The significance of COMAC's obtaining the frequency license of the enterprise's 5G private network is of great significance, which can be compared with the 5G licenses obtained by the four major basic telecom operators three years ago. First, the issuance of the first license means that the country has begun to allocate 5G private network spectrum, indicating that the 5G private network market has opened the door, more companies will get licenses, and a new market is about to explode; Let 5G play a greater role, making the 5G industry ecology finally explode; third, with the in-depth development of enterprises' self-built 5G private networks, it is expected to form a pattern of coexistence of "operators" of various shapes and sizes, and jointly build a global network. Industry digital innovation ecology.

It can be said that the issuance of 5G private network frequency license is at the right time!