According to the White Paper on China's Broadband Development 2022 released by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), China saw leapfrog development in its base support capacity in the past year.
So far, China has built the world's largest and most advanced 5G independent network. By the end of September 2022, a total of 2.22 million 5G base stations had been built and put into operation. In addition to covering all prefecture-level cities and above, the 5G network has been further extended to all counties and key townships across the country.
5G base stations were distributed at a density of 15.7 per 10,000 people, 1.9 times that of the same period last year. Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Zhejiang reported 5G base station densities of more than 20 per 10,000 people. China topped the world in the number of 5G mobile phone users, reaching 510 million, 1.8 times that of the same period last year, accounting for 30.3% of mobile phone users. Qinghai, Beijing, Guangdong, Ningxia and Zhejiang led the country in 5G mobile phone penetration.