Chinese carriers collectively claim to have cracked a billion 5G subs

China's big three mobile carriers have posted customer data for September 2022 that reveals they collectively operate over a billion subscriptions to 5G services. China Mobile revealed that as of September 30 it had 556,798,000 5G subs on the books – a jump of 28 million since August and an increase of 225 million over the …

[Geoff Campbell]

Mmmmm?

Well, yes, I'm sure that the basic figures are right. However, there's a difference between "a billion people chose to subscribe to a 5G service" and what actually happened, which was "a billion people subscribe to a phone service that happens to be 5G capable".

But, hey, 5G is a good thing, I'm quite happy with it. I just wonder why the figures needed to be provided with that narrative.

GJC

[Roland6]

Re: Mmmmm?

> "a billion people chose to subscribe to a 5G service"

Doesn't mean a billion people actually get 5G service.

For example, EE for some time have been offering 5G subscriptions - I have one even though my current phone is 4G and most of their network isn't 5G...

[Pascal Monett]

1.4 billion people

Of course China is going to get astounding figures, given that it is a dictatorship that pushes things and that 5G is rather handy.

I have a Samsung S22, that is 5G-capable. When I'm in Luxembourg center, I'm also connected in 5G. There's just not a billion of us to do so.

[Snowy]

I do wonder

How much power all this 5G to useing.

[teknopaul]

Re: I do wonder

Bit of googling: perhaps more in total but 10% power per byte.