China betting on mobile merger to keep its edge as global 5G race speeds up
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CHINA is betting that bulking up its phone companies will help the country keep its edge in the race for 5G.
A merger of two of China's three carriers under consideration - China United Network Communications Group Co and China Telecommunications Corp - could make it easier to spend on gear for the next generation of mobile technology, speeding its development. Shares of China Tower Corp dropped for a second day on Wednesday, as investors expect it will get cut out of infrastructure opportunities with a tie-up.
China has a narrow lead over South Korea, the US and Japan when it comes to readiness, according to Analysys Mason. The timing of the possible telecom combination in Asia's largest economy reflects that after years of talks, a global push for 5G is set to finally take hold in 2018 with the first large-scale infrastructure
rollouts to enable services like automated manufacturing, remote surgery, driverless cars and traffic control.
The technology provides much more capacity than 4G, and promises speeds fast enough to download a full-length high-definition movie in seconds. By the end of 2023, there will be one billion 5G subscriptions, accounting for around 20 per cent of mobile data traffic, according to Ericsson AB, the Swedish maker of wireless networks.
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