(Yicai) May 17 -- China Telecom, China Mobile, China Unicom and China Broadcast Network launched fifth-generation cross-network roaming at the 2024 World Telecommunication and Information Society Day held today that will allow users to switch to the network of other telecoms firms when their operator has no 5G coverage.

5G cross-network roaming involves two main scenarios, Dong Xiaoya, executive director of market research firm China Insights Consulting, told Yicai. First, in some remote areas where coverage is poor, users can change to other networks with better signal to continue using 5G services, she said. Second, during peak times users can avoid poor signal caused by network congestion of a single operator.

The core concept of cross-network roaming lies in the co-construction and sharing of telecommunication infrastructure, and the ultimate goal is to avoid the duplicate construction of network resources, especially in remote areas, Yicai learned.

As early as 2016, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology proposed cross-network roaming. And last year, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the northwest of the country launched the world’s first trial 5G cross-network roaming service. It is moving towards large-scale this year.

During the pilot period, there were 34,000 users every day in Xinjiang, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said. More than 2 terabytes of data were used and there were 200 hours of calls. This verifies the feasibility of the project, it added.

But there are many obstacles to 5G cross-network roaming, Dong said.

It is necessary to promote the co-building and sharing of communication infrastructure and the formulation of industry standards, she said. A series of laboratory and field tests are essential to verify the feasibility and stability of the technology. Cost is also key.

Through China Mobile’s bulk buy scheme of 5G cross-network roaming engineering equipment that it launched in January, all parties reached consensus on key issues, an industry insider told Yicai.

China Telecom and China Unicom have co-built the world’s first, largest and fastest 5G SA network and realized the full sharing of 4G intermediate frequency network.

While China Mobile and China Broadcast Network are building and sharing 5G networks in the 700MHz band. Chinese operators are also proposing international roaming capabilities in their cross-network roaming scenarios.

Editor: Kim Taylor