To save 5G, start by canceling the pull-down of the 5G switch?
Recently, many users have discovered that the 5G signal
shortcut switch in their mobile phones is missing. In this regard, Bruce Lee,
president of Huawei's terminal product line, explained on the social media
platform that removing the 5G pull-down shortcut switch is a unified
requirement of China's three major operators, because the operators found that
many users buy 5G mobile phones but turn off the 5G switch in use.
Recently, many users have discovered that the 5G signal
shortcut switch in their mobile phones is missing. In this regard, Bruce Lee,
president of Huawei's terminal product line, explained on the social media
platform that removing the 5G pull-down shortcut switch is a unified
requirement of China's three major operators, because the operators found that
many users buy 5G mobile phones but turn off the 5G switch in use.
Not only does Huawei mobile phone cancel the 5G pull-down
shortcut switch, looking at the mobile phones sold in the market, such as
Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo, etc., there is no 5G shortcut switch anymore. Obviously,
the requirements of operators mentioned by Huawei are basically true.
So the question arises, why do many consumers turn off the
5G network to use it even if they buy a 5G mobile phone?
The problem lies in 5G itself. For consumers, the greatest
convenience brought by the 5G network is the increase in network speed. But
other than that, there is almost no difference in other experiences from 4G.
Not only that, after turning on 5G, for many users, there will even be a
negative feedback.
For example, the increase in power consumption of mobile
phones causes serious heat generation in mobile phones. Of course, this is
mainly caused by the large bandwidth and multiple channels. In short, the
communication pipes have become thicker and the water pipes have become more
numerous, resulting in a significant increase in power consumption.
There is also the problem of the network itself. As the 5G
network itself has not yet perfect coverage, it may face the problem of
disconnection during use. In some scenarios, once the 5G signal is weak, it
will cause the switching frequency of different systems to become higher. The
imperfection of the above algorithm may cause the device to disconnect from the
network directly, and the network must be switched again to connect.
At the same time, the surge in power consumption brought
about by 5G is not only for users' mobile devices, but also for base stations.
According to public statistics, the current power consumption of 5G base
stations is about 3500W to 5000W. According to the calculation of industrial
electricity consumption of 0.5 yuan/kWh, the annual photoelectric fee for each
5G base station needs to range from 15,330 yuan to 21,900 yuan, let alone today
It also plans to increase the price of electricity, which means that a single
base station will cost more than 50,000 yuan a year in the future.
According to statistics, by the end of 2020, more than
718,000 5G base stations have been opened, and in 2021, my country will build
more than 600,000 5G base stations.
Calculating with 1.3 million 5G base stations means that in
the future, operators will need to spend 65 billion yuan on electricity alone,
which does not count the annual operation and maintenance costs of 5G base
stations, and the construction costs of 5G base stations.
Therefore, many 5G base stations have adopted the
intelligent base station mode, and some dynamically adjust the operating status
according to the number of users. When there are too few users connected to the
base station or there are no users, the base station will automatically reduce
power consumption or turn off, and will automatically turn on when there are
users connected, which can minimize power consumption.
Such a high cost, even the three major operators with deep
pockets, cannot withstand it without income. How to increase income and let
more users use 5G network is the most important part.
According to data recently released by the Ministry of
Industry and Information Technology, as of July this year, the number of 5G
mobile phone terminal connections reached 392 million, a net increase of 193
million from the end of the previous year, a growth rate of nearly 100%.
But even so, operators still require mobile phone
manufacturers to cancel the 5G shortcut switch in the drop-down menu. The
reason is that Bruce Lee said that many users bought 5G mobile phones but
turned off 5G. This has led to the growth of 5G users, but it has not actually
brought more revenue to operators.
At the same time, the Ministry of Industry and Information
Technology, the Office of the Central Cyber Security and Informatization
Commission, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of
Education, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural
Development, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the National Health
Commission, and the State-owned State Council Ten departments including the
Assets Supervision and Administration Commission and the National Energy
Administration have recently jointly issued the "5G Application
"Sailing" Action Plan (2021-2023)". There are quantitative
requirements for the coverage of 5G terminal users, so operators have to do
their best. Can increase the user's 5G usage.
At present, the cancellation of the pull-down of the 5G
shortcut switch on the mobile phone is obviously an operation that the
operators have taken to cultivate the user's habit of using 5G, but this method
of changing the cost by increasing the cost is just a temporary solution rather
than a permanent cure.
If you want to completely change the status quo of low 5G
usage, you can only start with application scenarios, but now with the
popularity of Wi-Fi, the scenarios that can use cellular networks are basically
outdoors without Wi-Fi. However, the problem is that consumers have cultivated
not to use high-traffic applications in outdoor scenarios without Wi-Fi, which
weakens the current only high-speed advantage of 5G.
Only the launch of 5G killer applications can completely
change this situation. However, it has been several years since the promotion
of 5G, and the market is still discussing 5G applications. It can only prove
that the exclusive application scenarios of 5G are either relatively small or
difficult to find. This is true for the past cellular network technology. A
whole new challenge.