During the 14th Five-Year Plan, China Mobile Communications Group Co., Ltd. (China Mobile) has boldly acted as a major force in building a strong country in science and technology, a strong cyberpower, and a Digital China. Its innovative capacity, developmental scale and service level have realized all-around breakthroughs and upgrades.
Innovation breakthrough
On June 24, 2024, the 2023 National Science and Technology Awards were announced in Beijing. The project of 5G technologies and engineering applications led by China Mobile won the State Scientific and Technological Progress Award. It was the third time that China Mobile has won the award, following its achievements in 3G and 4G.
With regard to key technology research and international standard formulation, China Mobile has put forward the 5G demand vision, making it the programmatic document for the formulation of 5G air interface technical standards in the scenarios and demand indicators led and formulated by ITU and 3GPP.
China Mobile has proposed Service-Based Architecture (SBA), and it took the lead in 5G system architecture research and standard projects at 3GPP. That was the first time for a Chinese enterprise to lead the design of the network architecture for the new generation of global communication systems, and this architecture has also become the sole basic network architecture for 5G SA independent networking. China Mobile has led more than 270 new work item proposals on the international standards for 5G and submitted nearly 10,000 technical documents, consistently ranking among the top global operators in both aspects.
China Mobile announces the commercial launch of a 5G-Advanced (5GA) network. [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]
During the 14th Five-Year Plan, China Mobile also thoroughly implemented the BASIC6 science and technology innovation initiative, focusing on key areas including big data, artificial intelligence (AI), security, the Mid-End Platform with an AaaS (Ability as a Service) system, computing power network and 6G. It aims to build a cradle of indigenous technology and activate the digital-intelligent engine for the development of new quality productive forces.
At the forefront of 6G development, China Mobile leads the global telecom operators in the number of new work item proposals on the international standards for 6G. It has launched the world's first 6G architecture verification satellite, and serves as the lead rapporteur for 3GPP's first global 6G scenario and demand standard project as well as the first 6G standard project for radio access networks. With over 1,200 6G patent applications filed, China Mobile has built an industry-leading 6G integrated testbed integrating communication, sensing, computing and intelligence, and it has established a collaborative innovation and testing platform for the new-generation mobile information network.
In the field of computing networks, China Mobile has pioneered the concept of the computing power network, leading it from a conceptual prototype to industrial practice and advancing the evolution of traditional cloud computing into cloud-intelligent computing, an in-depth integration of cloud and AI.
China Mobile has built the fully self-developed and controllable Jiutian Natural Language Interaction Large Model, which was selected as one of the top 10 national strategic technologies and equipment of central SOEs in 2024. China Mobile has also established the major national open innovation platform for artificial intelligence, the central SOE AI collaborative innovation platform and the state-owned assets AI platform, emerging as a national strategic sci-tech force in the AI field.
With regard to data, China Mobile has built the Wutong big data platform, the world’s largest communication service data cluster.
China Mobile 01 is launched into orbit. [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]
In advancing the low-altitude economy and satellite communications, China Mobile has proposed a low-altitude intelligent network technology system integrating communication, sensing, navigation and control. It pioneered the path to launching and operating the Beidou satellite short messaging services, sent the world’s first 5G-Advanced (5G-A) Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) regenerative technology verification satellite, China Mobile 01, into the orbit with successful on-orbit verification, and completed the development of China Mobile 02, the low-orbit direct mobile phone connection test satellite.
Scale breakthrough
On April 2, 2025, China Mobile announced that it has become the first telecom operator to make 5G mobile gigabit networks and gigabit fiber broadband networks covering all townships across the nation, with mobile and broadband services extending to every administrative village.
China Mobiles contributes to the simultaneous coverage of 5G mobile gigabit networks and gigabit fiber broadband networks. [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]
Over the past five years, focusing on connectivity, computing power and capabilities, China Mobile has built a new type of information infrastructure featuring 5G, a computing power network and the Mid-End Platform with an AaaS system. It has put into operation over 2.59 million 5G base stations, accounting for more than one-third of the global total. China Mobile has advanced the evolution of 5G to 5G-A, with 5G-A networks now covering all cities across the country.
In the development of computing networks, China Mobile’s data centers are covering all hub nodes of China’s mega data project dubbed "east data, west computing," and it has constructed China’s first computing power network integrating four types of computing: communication, intelligent, high-performance and quantum computing. Two ultra-large-scale intelligent computing infrastructure units equipped with more than 10,000 AI accelerator cards have been put into operation in Hohhot and Harbin, with the total intelligent computing scale reaching 61.3 EFlops. The newly upgraded computing network brain 3.0 system is deeply integrated with the Jiutian large model, integrating diverse orchestration and scheduling capabilities for resources and tasks, and it has evolved into a super intelligent agent capable of independent task planning and execution for complex computing network environments.
Over the past five years, relying on its leading information infrastructure, China Mobile has repeatedly set new records in customer scale and revenue, ranking first globally. The company’s total connections have by now exceeded 3.8 billion, with IoT card connections surpassing 1.4 billion, making it the world’s first to have more IoT connections than human users. Its mobile customers have reached 1.005 billion, including 599 million 5G network customers. Its gigabit broadband covers 500 million households, and its operating revenue has exceeded the one-trillion-yuan goal ahead of schedule, making it the No.1 telecom operator in the world.
Service breakthrough
China Mobile has initiated one set of customer service commitments, one service supervision platform, and one integrated service system in 2025. Along with its 10 key service commitments, the company has raised service standards and set an example for the industry.
China Mobile is the first to launch 5G New Calling. [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]
In the field of digital and intelligent living, China Mobile has launched distinctive products and services such as 5G New Calling and Super SIM. Gigabit broadband has been upgraded in speed and quality, and the "Full Gigabit + Cloud Life" smart home ecosystem is continuously expanding. Seventeen products China Mobile has on the consumer market have each attracted over 100 million users, the number of its home broadband customers has reached 280 million, and the home IoT connections have surpassed 630 million. The company also pioneered in developing and operating Beidou satellite short messaging services, and it steadily increased the proportion of "AI + Services." As a result, the fruits of its digital and intelligent development are benefiting numerous households.
In digital and intelligent production, new-generation information technologies such as 5G and AI have empowered the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries. The large-scale application of 5G has continued to advance, with over 52,000 benchmark applications launched, including digital factories, smart mines, smart healthcare and smart education. They have covered 86 out of 97 major categories of the national economy, helping traditional industries go digital, online, intelligent, high-end, green and low carbon. The integration of "AI + DICT" into industrial transformation and upgrading has been accelerated, targeting key sectors such as energy, water conservancy and agriculture. China Mobile has carried out in-depth cooperation with more than a dozen central enterprises and implemented over 1,000 "AI + DICT" projects.
In digital and intelligent governance, China Mobile has provided over 2,000 government informatization solutions for more than 300 cities and prefectures, with over 4,800 digital government, smart city and digital rural projects put into practice.
(Executive editor: Yuan Ting)
