China on the 6th of June granted commercial 5G licences to the three telecommunications network operators and the nation’s cable network giant, signalling major new investments in the world’s largest mobile market.  Carriers China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom, as well as China Broadcasting Network, were each awarded a licence to run commercial 5G mobile services, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

The award of licences is expected to enable China to move ahead in the global race to deploy telecoms infrastructure that will help power the industrial internet, autonomous driving and smart cities, among a range of advanced mobile applications.

This marks China’s official entry to the 5G era. MIIT had granted licences at the end of 2018 to China’s three state-owned carriers to conduct 5G trials, but this is the first time it has given the go-ahead for full commercial deployment.

The medias such as SouthChina Morning Post commented, while South Korea, the US, Australia and the UK have launched initial commercial 5G services in the second quarter, the scale of China’s market is likely to dwarf the combined size of those economies, claiming any first-mover advantage.