China’s 5G subscriber numbers to get a correction as carriers ordered to ‘clean up’ sales practices

China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology recently ordered the networks to ‘clean up’ their figures and end aggressive sales practices

President Xi Jinping has put 5G networks and data centres at the top of the country’s plans to spend on ‘new infrastructure’

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Chinese vendors such as Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo are doubling down on efforts to increase their domestic market share for 5G phones. Photo: AFP

Published: 5:15pm, 31 Jul 2020Updated: 10:41pm, 31 Jul 2020

When Guangzhou resident De De called up his network provider China Mobile last month wanting a cheaper mobile plan, he ended up following the advice of the customer service officer and signed up for a 5G plan.

There was only one catch – he did not have a 5G phone.

However, the 30 gigabytes of data usage covered in the plan could also be used on the 4G network when 5G is not available.

“I needed the data anyway and it only cost 1 yuan more than my original plan, so I thought ‘why not?’” said De, who uses a 4G version of the Huawei Mate 20 smartphone.

Although De has yet to enjoy any of the benefits delivered by 5G – such as reduced latency and higher capacity – he will have been counted by his carrier as one of China’s 100 million-plus new 5G subscribers. China’s top carriers China Mobile and China Telecom reported 70 million and 38 million 5G subscribers respectively as of the end of June. China Unicom has not disclosed the number of its 5G subscribers yet.

Meanwhile, a user named GXSD-09 on Chinese social media Weibo complained that he kept receiving calls from China Telecom informing him that his 4G plan would cease service unless he upgraded to 5G. “I can understand the company’s need to gain 5G market share, but I’m speechless with this blatant disregard for customers,” the user wrote in a post.

China’s 5G subscriber numbers to get a correction as carriers ordered to ‘clean up’ sales practices

China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology recently ordered the networks to ‘clean up’ their figures and end aggressive sales practices President Xi Jinping has put 5G networks and data centres at the top of the country’s plans to spend on ‘new infrastructure’

China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology recently ordered the networks to ‘clean up’ their figures and end aggressive sales practices

President Xi Jinping has put 5G networks and data centres at the top of the country’s plans to spend on ‘new infrastructure’