The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) recently released a statistical bulletin on the communications industry in 2022, which showed that 887000 new 5G base stations were built in China last year. At present, the total number of 5G base stations has reached 2.312 million, accounting for more than 60% of the global total. The construction of 5G network has been steadily promoted, and the network coverage capacity has been continuously improved. In 2022, three basic telecommunications enterprises and China Tower Corporation completed a total of 180.3 billion yuan of 5G investment, accounting for 43% of the fixed assets investment in telecommunications. By the end of 2022, China has built and opened 5G base stations, accounting for 21.3% of the total number of mobile base stations, up 7 percentage points from the end of last year. While continuing to deepen the coverage of prefecture-level cities, the 5G construction is gradually extending to towns and rural areas as required. 5G users account for 30%, leading the world in development. By the end of 2022, the number of mobile phone users in China was 1.683 billion, and the population penetration rate rose to 119.2 per 100 people, higher than the global average of 106.2 per 100 people. Among them, 5G mobile phone users reached 561 million, accounting for 11.7 percentage points higher than the end of last year, reaching 33.3%, 2.75 times the global average (12.1%). The application of 5G integration has been continuously expanded, and the supporting role of digital development has been continuously strengthened. In 2022, 5G integration application achievements in smart manufacturing, smart medical, smart education, digital government and other fields will emerge. The number of "5G+industrial Internet" projects invested and constructed nationwide has exceeded 4000, and a number of 5G fully connected factories have been built. Telecom enterprises have provided more than 14000 5G virtual private networks using 5G slicing technology to help accelerate the digital transformation of various industries. (Xinhua News Agency)