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Overview
As global 5G networks continue to develop and become widespread, the industry is entering the 5G-Advanced (5G-A) era. As an evolution of 5G, 5G-A aims to further optimize network performance, improve user experience, and enable new capabilities across multiple industries.
2024 has been regarded as the first commercial year for 5G-A, with multiple regions across China accelerating deployment and application. China Unicom is advancing 5G-A network trials and pilot projects to achieve downlink peak rates of 10 Gbps, uplink performance up to 1 Gbps, and enhanced service-assurance capabilities.
MWC2024 and Demonstration Results
At MWC2024, China Unicom published ten 5G-A innovation demonstrations that explore new technical and commercial models and target strategic emerging industries to support China’s modernization efforts.
Beijing Large-scale Network Demonstration
In Beijing, the Beijing branch of China Unicom and Huawei, under the 5G Capital collaboration, completed the country’s first large-scale 5G-A network demonstration. The demonstration delivered contiguous coverage across three key sites—Financial Street, the Changhua Building, and the Beijing Workers Stadium—with user downlink peak rates reaching 10 Gbps and continuous experience exceeding 5 Gbps. Joint trials with China Central Television tested applications such as naked-eye 3D, ultra-high-definition light compression, 8K high-uplink live streaming, and XR split rendering.
Among the projects was a jointly developed 5G-A ultra-high-definition light-compression real-time production system, which set a record for sustained high uplink bitrate during live production. The demonstration highlighted how 5G-A can transform audiovisual experiences and provided a practical, replicable guide for network construction and application incubation.
Technical Approach
In the 5G-A era, techniques such as intelligent aggregation across TDD and FDD three-carrier configurations enable continuous network upgrades, delivering generational leaps in experience. Audio-visual services are evolving toward higher resolution, 3D, and immersive formats.
Deployment Challenges and the Role of 5G Capital
“As 5G-A technologies mature, the key challenge becomes how to deploy them at scale in live commercial networks. This requires deep integration of advanced vendor equipment and operators’ network operations,” said Yang Lifan, Deputy General Manager of Beijing Unicom. “The Financial Street 5G-A on-site experiment is not primarily about extreme experience or scale. Rather, by coordinating high- and low-frequency network elements, it solved the first and most important problem for large-scale 5G-A deployment: discontinuous high-frequency coverage. It achieved a 1:1 parity with the existing network and delivered a smooth perceived 5G-A experience using a minimal number of sites. The 5G Capital model makes large-scale wide-area high-frequency deployment feasible in the future.”
Yang added that addressing challenges naturally creates opportunities. Each successful generation of mobile networks must be widely usable by customers, compatible with concurrent industry development, and economically viable.
Remaining Challenges
Looking ahead, several challenges remain: moving from single-site to large-scale deployments; extending solutions from outdoor to indoor scenarios; supporting temporary as well as permanent venues; achieving end-to-end quality perception rather than just single metric improvements; guaranteeing worst-case performance as average latency drops; and meeting ever-growing bandwidth demands, especially for AI workloads. The mission of 5G Capital is to tackle each of these issues.
Industry Perspective
Reviewing past mobile generations clarifies application directions: 2G enabled websites and images; 3G enabled video; 4G enabled high-definition video, interactive services, and industrial internet; and 5G is expected to drive AI and industrial control. Predicting specific applications is uncertain, but their direction will align with wider social and industrial trends, particularly AI and industrial control, according to Yang.
5G applications both expand capability and create new demand. The true value of 5G is still emerging and is expected to become more apparent in the next phase. At the midpoint of this transition, industry stakeholders are encouraged to collaboratively promote high-quality 5G-A development and realize its potential across sectors.
