On June 6, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) issued 5G commercial licenses to four state-owned telecommunication companies. China Mobile is keen to get rolling with its 5G build out. In the past few days, the company has announced three big procurement deals for 5G equipment. The company which bagged the biggest contract  namely “Huawei will provide 49 per cent of the MME/SGSN equipment and 54 per cent of the SAE-GW/GGSN equipment – two types of core network equipment needed for the operation of ultra-fast 5G networks – to China Mobile.” Two foreign companies also got a share. “Sweden’s Ericsson and Finland’s Nokia bagged 34 per cent and 12 per cent of the MME/SGSN equipment orders, as well as 34 per cent and 9 per cent of the SAE-GW/GGSN orders respectively."

(Comment: The amount of foreign-procured equipment that Chinese telecoms utilise in their 5G networks is a useful barometer for the country’s appetite for technological integration.)