China Broadcasting Network (CBN) has received approval to deploy a 5G network across 16 cities using a spectrum in 4.9GHz band. It plans to have a nationwide coverage by 2021 after it signed a deal with State Grid last year.
CBN is a broadcasting company headquartered in China. The telecom provider’s initial deployment will cover major cities such as Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Shenzhen among 12 others.
In last October, CNB started trialling standalone technology on the 700MHz band in Shanghai. The telecom provider is working on an investment worth $35.8 million for its 5G network.
CBN received its commercial 5G licence in June when the country’s big three telecom operators also received the licence. The operators are China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom.
China Mobile received a licence for 260MHz of spectrum across 2.6GHz and 4.8GHz bands. China Telecom and China Unicom each received 100MHz in 3.5MHz band — and they operate jointly for their 5G deployments.
A source told the media, “Spectrum bands are as important to mobile carriers as land is to property developers. It is crucial to have wide spectrum bands to ensure a good mobile network experience.”
CBN became China’s fourth telecom operator in 2016. The ministry issued a telecom licence for the company to operator internet data transmission business and domestic telecommunication infrastructure service business in the country.
China is expected to have 576 million 5G users by 2025, which equals to more than 40 percent of global consumption, according to EY data.