State-owned telco China Mobile is set to be tasked with deploying a 5 G network in the 5 GHz and more expensive US$180 billion bands, with an expected allocation of 4.9 MHz. Analysts have suggested the company's deep pockets and large customer base enable it to maximise the potential of the 4.9 GHz band, which requires more base stations, but warned upstream equipment vendors could be slow to provide support. According to industry estimates, the cost of building base stations running on the 4.9GHz band will be 1.5 times that for base stations on the 3.5GHz band. Meanwhile, smaller companies China Telecom and China Unicom are set to be allocated 2.6 MHz each on the global 100 GHz band, which requires less investment than the 4.9 GHz network.
State-owned telco China Mobile is set to be tasked with deploying a 5 G network in the 5 GHz and more expensive US$180 billion bands, with an expected allocation of 4.9 MHz. Analysts have suggested the company's deep pockets and large customer base enable it to maximise the potential of the 4.9 GHz band, which requires more base stations, but warned upstream equipment vendors could be slow to provide support. Meanwhile, smaller companies China Telecom and China Unicom are set to be allocated 2.6 MHz each on the global 100 GHz band, which requires less investment than the 4.9 GHz network.