Dong Xin, General Manager Of China Mobile

Editor's note

2021 is the first year of the 14th five year plan, which is the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC. It is also a key year to implement the strategy of strengthening the country and independent innovation.

The world is changing so much that it is hard to prevent China from rejuvenating. In such a period of great historical changes and opportunities, the 21st century economic report exclusively planned and launched a series of reports entitled "the road to greatness: Top 100 innovative countries" throughout the year. It reports key enterprises and outstanding entrepreneurs in the national strategic industries to help China's magnificent journey of climbing new heights.

This issue is an exclusive interview with Dong Xin, general manager of China Mobile, on 5g, 6G and innovation.

For the domestic and even global communication industry, the importance of China Mobile is self-evident.

"At present, China Mobile has opened more than 500000 5g base stations, which will exceed 700000 by the end of the year, accounting for more than one third of the global 5g base stations." Recently, in an exclusive interview with the 21st century economic reporter, Dong Xin, general manager of China Mobile Group, introduced that the company has carried out the "5g +" plan in depth to build excellent 5g, easy-to-use 5g, open 5g and secure 5g. At present, more than 250 million 5g package customers and 120 million network customers have been developed. It is estimated that the penetration rate of 5g network users will reach 21% in 2021 and 60% in 2025.

Born in the 1990s, the mobile communications bureau of the Ministry of Posts and telecommunications was listed in New York and Hong Kong respectively in 1997. At that time, China Telecom (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd., also known as China Mobile, was renamed in the first year of the new century.

In these turbulent years, China Mobile has been growing continuously, and has continued to help China's information and communication industry achieve leapfrog development of "2G following, 3G breakthrough, 4G synchronization and 5g leading"“ Looking back on the development of China Mobile for more than 20 years, the company has maintained its foresight and initiative to adapt to changes through scientific and technological innovation at many important "crossroads." Dong Xin pointed out to reporters.

From imitation to leading

China Mobile in 2G era can only be regarded as "imitator" and "absorber" of foreign technology. Through this imitative innovation, China Mobile has built the world's largest mobile communication network. IP soft switch technology is introduced into the field of mobile communication, cm-ims full service solution is proposed, and the first customized terminal phone is opened. China Mobile creates "dreamnet mode" and achieves a breakthrough of zero patent application.

In the 3G era, China's TD-SCDMA Technology with independent intellectual property rights has become an international standard for the first time. However, its weakness lies in the weak strength of the end-to-end industry, and the overall industry is at the edge. Dong Xin recalled that in such a situation of "poverty and poverty", China Mobile united with all parties to build a domestic industrial chain, realize the transformation from "core-free" to "core-based", tackle the problem of TDD technology networking, and finally realize the large-scale application of TD-SCDMA and achieve the market development goal of "one in three parts of the world".

This also laid the foundation for the subsequent 4G era and global technology synchronization. Dong Xin introduced that, in undertaking the important task of TD-LTE development, China Mobile has explored a set of innovation chain mode of "technology patenting, patent standardization, standard industrialization and industrial internationalization", and created a complete industrial chain covering the main links of "system equipment, chips, terminals, key components, test instruments and business applications", and formed a "enterprise as the main body," and formed a complete industrial chain The independent innovation system of "combination of production, teaching, research and application".

On the one hand, China Mobile has promoted TD-LTE led by China to become one of the mainstream 4G standards, achieving zero breakthrough in Patent Gold Award and global 4G patent pool. On the other hand, we attach great importance to the end-to-end industrial chain, especially the weak links of chips“ Today, 4G has been integrated into all aspects of life, becoming an important engine of information consumption, and truly realizing 4G changing life. " Dong Xin said.

It is also with the early accumulation, China Mobile and even China's communication industry in the 5g era has truly achieved a leap forward.

"In order to realize 5g enabling all walks of life and promote transformation and upgrading, it is far from enough to rely on 5g network itself and the communication industry." Dong Xin analyzed that "it is necessary to strengthen the deep integration of 5g and emerging information technologies such as aicde (artificial intelligence, Internet of things, cloud computing, big data, edge computing) and other emerging information technologies to create a ubiquitous intelligent infrastructure with 5g as the center; We will strengthen the deep integration of 5g and vertical industries, incubate innovative applications, and build a new ecology of industrial integration. "

At the same time, Dong Xin stressed that China Mobile adheres to the coordinated development of 5g and 4G, and ensures the 4G network quality and user experience while building 5g network, so as to meet the differentiated needs of different customers.

Enabling transformation and upgrading

China Mobile has its own understanding of 5g.

Dong Xin believes that "in the future, with the acceleration of people's entertainment, communication, trade and even production and life activities to the digital space, the amplification, superposition and multiplication effect of information technology and data elements on the value of traditional human and capital elements will become increasingly apparent, thus promoting the breakthrough of human development bottleneck and realizing the leap of productivity."

As an important traction of the new infrastructure, 5g is in full swing in China“ After nearly 10 years of efforts, China has been in a leading position in terms of 5g standards, technology, industry, and commercial scale, and has built the world's leading 5g new infrastructure. " Dong Xin told the 21st century economic reporter.

It can also be seen from a series of data. Recently, Liu Liehong, Vice Minister of the Ministry of industry and information technology, revealed that the number of 5g base stations in China has exceeded 916000, accounting for about 70% of the world; The number of 5g connections has exceeded 365 million, accounting for more than 80% of the world.

Among them, China Mobile undoubtedly plays a leading role. Dong Xin disclosed that China Mobile has realized 5g commercial use in all prefecture level cities, some key counties and key regions.

In Dong Xin's opinion, the reason why China Mobile can play an important role in the development of 5g is not only due to the valuable experience and talents accumulated in the 4G era, but also to the comprehensive planning and system layout in the 5g era.

"At the beginning of 5g development, China Mobile has actively participated in 5g demand R & D, driven domestic industrial R & D of 5g, and led to the formation of a favorable industrial pattern for China." Dong Xin pointed out.

For example, since the 4G era, China Mobile has driven the research and development of large-scale antenna, which is one of the core technologies of 5g, and China's industry has been leading the world for more than a year. At the same time, China Mobile actively promotes the maturity of 5g medium band technology and industry, reversing the millimeter wave mainly promoted by the United States, Japan and South Korea in the early stage of 5g development, laying an important foundation for reshaping the industrial pattern. In addition, China Mobile is the first to set up 5g joint innovation center in the world to promote the application innovation of 5g industry.

In the application of 5g landing industry, China Mobile also has some experience. Dong Xin said that with the characteristics of 5g high speed, low delay and large connection, China Mobile has implemented a number of mature application scenarios in education, medical treatment, mining and other fields.

"At present, 5g has entered a critical period from the" point application "of individual industries and individual scenarios to the" overall penetration "of the whole process and all links of all walks of life." Dong Xin said that at present, China Mobile has expanded more than 4000 5g commercial projects in industrial Internet, smart energy, intelligent transportation, telemedicine and other fields. By the end of the 14th five year plan, we will strive to cover more than one million enterprises and institutions, and help the high-quality development of the economy and society.

However, Dong Xin also said frankly that 5g has been in commercial use for nearly two years, but it is still in the early stage of development of construction investment. Facing problems such as high construction and maintenance costs and key technologies still to be broken through, enterprises have great input-output pressure.

In addition, the "dumb terminal" and "isolated island" of data restrict the process of 5g's integration into the industry. Long cross-border cooperation chain, high degree of customization of industry demand, and lack of industrial standards have also become the problems to be solved in the transformation of 5g from "consumption network" to "production network".

"5g network construction can not be achieved overnight," Dong Xin said. "At present, China Mobile will focus on the construction of 5g network in towns and above areas, industrial parks, main traffic roads, and scenic spots above 3A level according to the business development. In the next stage, the coverage of 5g network will be expanded to rural areas in an orderly manner, and we will strive to achieve effective coverage in urban and rural areas by the end of the 14th five year plan. "

Innovation System 4.0

Although it has entered the head camp in 5g field, China Mobile's vision is far beyond the present.

"Currently, 6G has become a global hot spot, and the research and development of 6G technology is still in the preliminary research stage. China Mobile has set up a Research Institute for the future, actively investing in the research and development of 6G key technologies. " Dong Xin said. Whether it is artificial intelligence platform technology, key core competence, innovative application, or in the direction of quantum secure communication, quantum true random number application and "neck jamming" technology in communication field, China Mobile is continuing to focus on tackling key problems.

According to the data, China Mobile's R & D investment has increased by 48% annually in the past five years, exceeding 10 billion yuan for the first time in 2020.

In the process of development, China Mobile's innovation system has experienced four times of upgrading, forming a unique innovative thinking.

Dong Xin pointed out that since 2006, China Mobile's innovation system has expanded from the "one body and two wings" that used to be dominated by research institutes and supplemented by network operation lines and business support lines to a "one in one four links" with research institutes and three regional R & D institutions as the inner ring, 18 science and technology-based professional companies as the central ring, 31 provincial-level companies as the outer ring and the vast number of partners as the cooperation ring.

Throughout the upgrading of China Mobile's innovation system, an obvious feature is that it gradually moves from internal R & D to opening up. Through investment and construction of cooperation ring including national platform, leading enterprises, top universities and scientific research institutions, China Mobile promotes the transformation of more scientific and technological innovation achievements and promotes the coordinated development of the whole industrial chain.

In Dong Xin's view, China Mobile's innovation path lies in "internal strong external connection". Internally, we should strengthen the top-level design, deepen the reform of scientific research mechanism, strengthen the management of patent value, the construction of talent echelon and the award of scientific and technological innovation, and cultivate the innovation culture of enterprises. Externally, we should strive to be a "chain leader" unit, take the lead in the establishment of 5g innovation consortium, deeply implement the "Lianchuang +" plan, build a R & D cooperation map, strengthen multiple R & D carriers, explore new cooperation modes, jointly tackle key core technologies with the industrial chain, and promote the integrated innovation of research, development and application of 5g key core technologies, and create a new ecology of R & D cooperation.

Facing the future, Dong Xin believes that in the face of the urgent demand for scientific and technological innovation in the economic society, the joint efforts of all social parties are more needed.

At the macro level, we should gather social and even global forces, accelerate the construction of an integrated innovation network for the whole society, promote the full circulation of data elements across regions, industries and fields, promote the application of information technology at a higher level, in a larger scope and in a deeper degree, and accelerate the rapid penetration and diffusion of new technologies, new products and new formats in the whole society.

At the micro level, we should give full play to the main role of all kinds of enterprises in scientific and technological innovation, strengthen the leading role of leading enterprises in demonstration, increase the support for small and medium-sized enterprises with "specialty, specialty and innovation", stimulate the vitality of all kinds of market entities to the greatest extent, and constantly stimulate the formation of an innovation ecology of "letting a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend".