为打赢5G竞争，中国都做了什么

坐拥全球用户最多、网络规模最大的移动通信市场，中国决心要成为全球5G无线通信技术的领导者，西方电信公司因此感受到了新的竞争和挑战，西方国家政府也对国家安全产生担忧。上周的《南华早报》（The South China Morning Post）表达了上述观点，近期有多篇文章详细阐述了新一代移动网络全球军备竞赛的不断升级。

“如果说‘大数据’是数字时代的新动力，”《南华早报》评论称，“5G是输出新动力的新型管道——与以往不同的是，中国决心要在这个时代拥有更多的基础建设，从而掌控本国产业的未来。”

赌注十分诱人。5G网络或将达到现有无线网络100倍之快，能在一眨眼的功夫里下载完电影，随之还将迎来移动新业务的爆炸式发展。5G网络的拥趸称这种新型网络可以支持海量设备连接，创造无法想象的突破。

有专家认为中国正在5G竞赛中取得领先。北京将发展5G作为“中国制造2025战略”技术纲领的国家重点，旨在推动建立全球技术标准。政府支持移动运营商和设备制造商发展5G技术。中国最大的电信设备制造商华为正将几十亿投入5G技术研发，该公司还持有5G通信的关键性专利“极化码”，这种突破性技术由土耳其科学家埃达尔·阿勒坎发明，用于更正信号传输中的错误。德勤最近的一项研究表明，自2015年起，中国已经建立了35万个蜂窝基站，相比之下，美国仅建了不足3万个。预计中国将于2020年将5G用于商业用途。

美国的5G发展前景却听凭私营企业处置。美国电话电报公司（AT&T）和威瑞森（Verizon）迫不及待地想在今年年底在美国部分城市推出5G，但适用这种新型网络的移动设备却得等到2019年才能面世。

特朗普政府和中国进行的大范围技术和贸易战中，5G也是一个焦点。白宫禁止中国两大电信设备制造商华为和中兴在美国市场参与竞争，称此举是出于国家安全考虑，还力图阻止澳大利亚、新西兰、加拿大、英国等战略盟友允许中国电信设备制造商提供5G服务。

总而言之，这场高速无线网络主导权之争不过是再次展示了全球前两大经济体之间的竞争如何把世界割裂成两大（也可能是三大）对立的科技集团。（财富中文网）

译者：Agatha

China, the world’s largest mobile market by subscriber and network size, is determined to become the world leader in 5G wireless technologies, posing a new competitive challenge to Western telecommunications firms and raising national security concerns for Western governments. So says The South China Morning Post last week in one of a flurry of recent accounts detailing the escalating global arms race in next-generation mobile networks.

“If ‘big data’ is the new oil of the digital era,” the Post observes, “then 5G is the next set of pipes that will deliver it—and unlike previous generations, China is determined to own more of this infrastructure, giving it mastery of its own industrial future.”

The stakes are high. 5G networks are expected to be about 100 times faster than current wireless networks. They promise movie downloads in the blink of an eye and an explosion of new mobile services. Champions of the new networks say they will support a riot of connected devices, and unleash unimaginable breakthroughs.

Some experts think China is winning the 5G race. Beijing identified 5G as a national priority in its “Made in China 2025” technology roadmap and worked closely to set global technical standards. The government supports efforts of its mobile carriers and equipment manufacturers to develop 5G technologies. Huawei Technologies, China’s largest telecom equipment maker, is investing billions in 5G research and owns a critical patent for “polar coding,” a breakthrough method for correcting errors in data transmission invented by Turkish scientist Erdal Arikan. A recent Deloitte study found that, since 2015, China has built 350,000 cell sites compared with fewer than 30,000 in the US. China is expected to roll out 5G for commercial use in 2020.

The U.S. has left development of 5G to the private sector. AT&T and Verizon are rushing to introduce 5G in some U.S. cities by the end of this year, but mobile devices compatible with the those new networks won’t be available until 2019.

The Trump administration has focused on 5G networks in its wider dispute with China over technology and trade. Washington has barred China’s two largest telecommunications equipment makers, Huawei and ZTE, from competing in the U.S. market, citing national security concerns, and sought to deter strategic allies including Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United Kingdom from accepting 5G services from Chinese telecommunications equipment companies.

All told, the battle for dominance in high-speed wireless offers yet another example of how competition between the planet’s two largest economies is cleaving the world into two (or possibly three) rival techno-blocs.