China Telecom has reached a milestone in its quest to refashion itself as a cloud and 5G business, launching what it calls the world’s largest standalone 5G network. SA network is currently supported by 30 devices, with 100 expected by year-end. They also stressed 5G SA is a cloud-based network, thus combining China Telecom’s two emerging growth engines. The operator is restructuring its networks and business around the cloud in a process it acknowledges will take more than a decade. It has also collaborated in building a series of new enterprise services, including network slicing for Shenzhen Public Security, a smart factory solution for appliance firm Midea, and an experimental smart grid with Qingdao State Grid. A white paper issued at last week’s event describes China Telecom’s cloud-network integration as driven by open sharing, open network capabilities, multi-network access 5G and SD-WAN support.
China Telecom’s cloud and network platforms are relatively independent of each other, the paper said, forecasting it would take the operator until 2030 to achieve full integration. By that stage it aims to have eliminated all the technical boundaries between cloud and network in terms of infrastructure, underlying platforms, application architecture, development methods, operation and maintenance tools. The telco has also unveiled the first cloud mobile phone, the Tianyi No. 1, based on the integrated virtualization of the terminal and the cloud. Priced at 999 yuan (US$151.80), it gives users the choice of moving into cloud mode, in which functions are performed off-device, thus greatly reducing power consumption. The operator plans to jointly launch more than 100 cloud terminals with developers, chip and device vendors, solution providers and others.