At the 2024 China Unicom Partner Conference held recently, Hu Lexin, General Manager of China Unicom's Public Customer Sales Center, stated that as of the first half of the year, China Unicom's physical stores have exceeded 130,000, with broader channel coverage. The user base is also larger, with the total number of China Unicom's mobile and broadband users exceeding 460 million, a net increase of nearly 10 million, marking a three-year high. FTTR users have surpassed 9.05 million, making it a global leader in scale.
In the broadband access market, operators face challenges such as severe homogenization competition and underutilized pipeline applications. FTTR-based CPN (Customer Premises Network) has opened new business growth points for operators. As the world's first operator to develop FTTR on a large scale, China Unicom has always been a market leader.
Ao Li, Chief Engineer of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, pointed out that the three major operators all consider smart homes as a focal point, aiming to form a trillion-yuan market within five years. Sustainable Wi-Fi services based on FTTR can match diverse value-added business scenarios. Integrating broadband networks with cloud and AI technology applications supports the formation of AI-based smart home strategies, which has become a key focus for operators.