"New infrastructure" represented by 5G is critical to digital transformation, intelligent upgrading and integrated innovation now booming in various fields. The CPC Shandong Provincial Committee and the People's Government of Shandong Province have attached great importance to 5G development by releasing a series of support policies for 5G construction and application, and proposing to subsidize the construction of 5G base stations and subscriber development for the first time. After the Regulations of Shandong Province for Communications Infrastructure Construction and Protection came into effect this year, Shandong's 5G network construction environment has improved significantly. Since the beginning of this year, to solve problems arising in 5G construction such as high electricity charges and the great difficulty in construction site access, Shandong has lowered construction site rents by 83 million yuan, completed direct power supply renovation for more than 15,100 communities and reduced electricity charges by 142 million yuan. Shandong has so far invested 8.37 billion yuan in 5G construction, accelerating the high-level and multi-field application of 5G.

5G is approaching common consumers in an accelerated manner. Shandong's provincial, municipal and county industry and information technology systems have worked with operators, equipment suppliers and mobile phone dealers, to promote 5G mobile phones and 5G plans. As of late October, Shandong registered 29.193 million 5G subscribers with a penetration rate of 28.6%, up 15.8% from last year.

In traditional advantageous fields like manufacturing, Shandong has explored new 5G application scenarios for key industries, to make 5G a core catalyst for cloud computing, big data, AI, IoT, edge computing and other emerging technologies. Under the principle of construction-application integration, Shandong has organized basic telecom operators to build 142 5G application models in 15 industries. 5G+MEC corporate private network jointly developed by WEY and Shandong Unicom has enabled scenarios such as 5G+unmanned forklift in press shop, 5G+cloud-based AGV in welding shop and full-process intelligent unmanned distribution of parts.

Shandong has supported State Grid Shandong Electric Power Company in teaming up with Shandong Unicom, Shandong Mobile and Shandong Telecom to develop China's first provincial 5G electric power demonstration network: a province-wide 5G electric power slicing network covering power generation, management information and customer service, connecting more than 7,000 5G electric power terminals and powered by more than 70,000 5G base stations. "Shandong has four cases: electronic equipment manufacturing, equipment manufacturing, mining and electric power listed among the 20 typical application scenarios of '5G+industrial Internet' released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, ranking first in China," said Li Sha, a member of the Party Leadership Group of the Department of Industry and Information Technology of Shandong Province.

According to the "Fourteenth Five-Year Plan" of Shandong Province for the Development of the Information Communication Industry, by late 2025, Shandong will launch more than 250,000 5G base stations, realize the full coverage of 5G and Gigabit optical network in cities, towns (townships) and administrative villages, and develop at least five cities accessing to Gigabit 5G network. Shandong will continue to accelerate the switch of 5G application from the public sector to the industrial sector, extend 5G application from the outside to the inside of production, and build more "5G+industrial Internet" application models, thereby speeding up the development of a 5G industrial ecosystem with Shandong's characteristics, Li said.