The Greater Bay Area (GBA) in China refers to the integrated city cluster in the Pearl River Delta of South China. Sometimes considered China’s Silicon Valley, it has emerged as one of the most economically developed regions in China, and as such has been at the forefront of its 5G rollout plans.
In this report, we will examine the 5G performance across the Greater Bay Area. We benchmark the results among the eleven cities in the area, focusing in particular on the four major cities of Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Macau, and Shenzhen.
Key takeaways
- The Greater Bay Area’s 5G growth is supported by policies and initiatives promoting 5G technology. The Greater Bay Area 5G Industry Alliance and network-sharing agreements are initiatives that foster collaboration among industry stakeholders, while also boosting deployment efficiency. Additionally, subsidy programs further encourage 5G expansion in the GBA.
- It is still early days for Macau, but the city’s 5G network has the fastest median download speed in the Greater Bay Area at 383.59 Mbps, while early adopter Hong Kong lags behind with a median download speed of 136.65 Mbps.
- Improved integration between cities in the Greater Bay Area. Efforts to improve 5G infrastructure and connectivity between cities in the Greater Bay Area result in better coverage in highly populated areas and increased coverage along major connecting roads. Coverage plots show significantly more SS-RSRP samples of better than -92 dBm in Q2 2023 as compared to the previous year.
- Operators have made strides in expanding 5G coverage within indoor settings. In under a year, over half (51.8%) of Macau’s buildings have reported indoor 5G coverage. Shenzhen (81.5%), Guangzhou (68.2%), and Hong Kong (63.2%) have also seen an increase in the number of buildings with 5G coverage in Q2 2023 compared to the previous year.
Coordinated initiatives and policies driving 5G deployment
The Greater Bay Area encompasses nine cities, including Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan, Dongguan, Huizhou, Zhongshan, Jiangmen, and Zhaoqing, as well as two Special Administrative Regions, Hong Kong, and Macau. With a population of 87 million, the region’s combined gross domestic product (GDP) was nearly US$2 trillion in 2022, accounting for almost 11% of China’s GDP.
5G technology is integral to China’s government vision and technology policies. The technology is a big part of the country’s development policy and goals for 2021 – 2025, as detailed in its 14th Five-Year Plan for National Plan. Benefiting from the central government policy, the Greater Bay Area has emerged as a thriving hub for established and emerging tech companies and startups.
Given this dynamic, federal, and local governments are actively promoting 5G technology within the Greater Bay Area. One example is the establishment of the Greater Bay Area 5G Industry Alliance in 2019 by China Mobile Hong Kong, China Mobile Guangdong, CTM, and the Guangdong Communication Industry Association. The alliance members consist of operators, leading companies in the industry, social organizations, academic researchers, and enterprises involved in 5G technology. Their primary goal is to enhance and encourage the development of 5G industries among stakeholders and operators in the GBA region.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) in China also facilitated sharing of 5G networks and encouraged commercial partnerships among 5G operators. As a result, China Unicom and China Telecom have signed a cooperation agreement to share their 5G infrastructure. Providing subsidies is also a common tactic regulators and governments use to encourage 5G deployment. In Hong Kong, for example, from May 2020 till the end of December 2022, the Office of the Communications Authority (OFCA) ran a subsidy scheme to encourage various sectors, through financial incentives, to deploy 5G technology.
As a result, the GBA has witnessed significant investments and a rapid rollout of 5G infrastructure. By 2021, all cities in the region have launched 5G networks, with Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong leading the way.
Macau’s early 5G performance impresses
According to Speedtest Intelligence® Q2 2023 data, Macau outpaced all the other cities in the Greater Bay Area on median download speed, being the only city that topped 300 Mbps at 383.59 Mbps. Despite being the most recent city in GBA to launch its 5G network, operators in Macau began deploying as early as 2020, ahead of being granted their 5G licenses in November of 2022. CTM, one of the providers, stated that their 5G network has been fully operational since June 2021. Macau’s regulatory body, the Macau Post and Telecommunications Bureau (CTT), also mandated as part of the 5G license award that operators must cover 50% of the territory within the first year and provide full coverage within 18 months.
Within Guangdong Province, the nine cities have reported median download speeds ranging from 188 Mbps to 255 Mbps in Q2 2023. The cities of Zhaoqing and Zhongshan are the only cities in the province to report speeds of over 250 Mbps. Zhaoqing has a speed of 254.17 Mbps, while Zhongshan reports a speed of 251.13 Mbps.
Despite being an early adopter of 5G, Hong Kong’s median download speed of 136.65 Mbps in Q2 2023 falls behind the other cities in the GBA. One factor contributing to the lower median download speed is a preference for low bands to fulfill coverage obligations. CMHK, for example, has been deploying its 700 MHz 5G spectrum, enabling better indoor penetration and broader 5G coverage at the expense of median download speed.
Macau operators rank highest for 5G performance in the Greater Bay Area
In this section, we drill down into the operators’ 5G performance in the major cities of Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, and Macau to understand which operators are driving 5G performance in these cities. Speedtest Intelligence data shows considerable variation in the median 5G download speeds across these four cities.
As with any new launches, it is not surprising that the operators in Macau rank higher in terms of performance than those in the other three cities. During Q2 2023, China Telecom in Macau reported a median download performance of 418.13 Mbps, while CTM Macau achieved 374.51 Mbps during the same period. While operators in Macau continue to invest in 5G solutions, it’s worth noting that users could see 5G speeds decline after more and more users join and congestion ticks up.
On the other end of the chart, SmarTone, csl, and Hutchinson in Hong Kong reported speeds of 153.62 Mbps, 122.15 Mbps, and 105.34 Mbps respectively. CMHK tops the 5G operators in Hong Kong with a recorded median download speed of 166.41 Mbps in Q2 2023. Although reporting comparatively slower speeds than its neighboring cities, the number of 5G users in Hong Kong exceeded four million in April 2023, representing over 60% of the population.
Low latency comes to the fore with 5G
China remains one of the biggest gaming markets globally, with three in ten (29%) Chinese consumers claiming to spend most of their time gaming each week. 5G technology is expected to revolutionize how gamers connect to the internet by providing a much more reliable connection as more casual and serious gamers adopt mobile gaming. This has created a demand for low-latency network connections so gamers can enjoy seamless and lag-free mobile gameplay. Latency, or the reaction time of a connection, is a crucial metric for achieving optimal performance in technologies like gaming, video conferencing, and AR/VR. Aiming for a latency of 59 ms or less is recommended for the best gaming experience.
During Q2 2023, gamers in Macau and Hong Kong experienced significantly lower median latency on 5G, with both cities registering latency below 30 ms. Macau emerged ahead with a median latency of 18.22 ms, whereas Hong Kong reported a median latency of 25.97 ms.
On the other hand, GBA cities in Guangdong Province reported a 5G median latency of over 60 ms during the same time frame. It’s worth noting that approximately 80% of tests conducted in Guangdong Province utilized servers based in Hong Kong and Macau, which influenced the higher latency results in these cities.
While gaming is usually top of mind when we talk about latency, having a low-latency network also plays a crucial role in driving digital transformation and achieving high levels of automation and responsiveness in key industries, such as manufacturing, logistics, and healthcare. The Chinese University of Hong Kong Hospital (CUHK) has partnered with Huawei Hong Kong to establish a 5G smart hospital. CUHKMC is utilizing the high throughput and low latency capabilities of 5G technology to facilitate innovative medical digital transformation. These include remote consultations and collaboration, telemedicine, and other applications to enhance patient treatment experience.
Boosting Cross-Border Connectivity
The Chinese government has implemented several measures to enhance the integration of Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Macau, along with the seven other cities in Guangdong Province. To encourage greater mobility across the Greater Bay Area, operators in the region are enhancing infrastructure by building more 5G sites and creating data plans that can be used while roaming within the GBA, reducing cross-border roaming expenses.
Comparing the 5G signal strength using the SS-RSRP metric from Ookla® Cell Analytics™ between Q2 2022 and Q2 2023, shows improvements in terms of 5G coverage in heavily populated areas of the region. The plot indicates significantly more samples along arterial routes connecting the main cities in Q2 2023, with more recorded samples with SS-RSRP of more than -92 dBm.
Similar effort on expanding 5G indoor coverage
With 70 to 80 percent of data traffic projected to be generated indoors, improving indoor coverage and user experience has become a priority, especially in highly dense cities such as those within the Greater Bay Area. China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) issued a 5G spectrum license to China Unicom, China Telecom, and China Broadnet to share the 3.3–3.4 GHz band as part of an effort to prioritize 5G indoor coverage. There has also been a significant drive by mobile operators in the GBA to extend 5G coverage to be readily available in public transport infrastructures. In Hong Kong, csl provides 5G network coverage along the MTR lines, with dedicated 5G spectrum on some routes.
We analyzed data from Ookla® Cell Analytics™ to compare the percentage of buildings in Hong Kong, Macau, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou with reported 5G coverage in Q2 2022 and Q2 2023. Deployment of 5G primarily uses high-frequency spectrums, which poses challenges for indoor penetration. In this analysis, we have only considered buildings taller than 10 meters as they are more likely to be high-rise buildings with in-building solutions such as distributed antenna systems (DAS) or served by sites nearby.
Macau, which did not have any commercial 5G network a year prior, undeniably has the most significant increase in the percentage of buildings with 5G coverage over the past year. The operators in the city have managed to provide 5G coverage to more than 50% (51.8%) of the city’s buildings in less than a year.
Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Hong Kong also saw increased buildings with reported 5G coverage. Shenzhen and Guangzhou had 81.5% and 68.2% of buildings with reported 5G coverage in Q2 2023, respectively, equating to an 18.2% and 17.4% increase from the previous year. Hong Kong, one of the most densely populated cities in the world, reported a total of 63.2 % of buildings with 5G indoor coverage in Q 2023, an increase from 55.5 % a year before. Operators’ use of sub-1 GHz frequencies in 5G deployment is one of the contributing factors to the reported increase in in-building 5G coverage.
The outlook for the Greater Bay Area
The Greater Bay Area has embraced 5G technology, unlocking its potential to revolutionize various industries and drive automation and digitalization, and will continue to be a key driver of China’s economic growth. The region’s 5G network infrastructure has brought transformative opportunities across diverse sectors. However, there are still improvements to be made in terms of in-building coverage and implementation of more advanced 5G use cases. We will closely monitor the progress and implementation of 5G technology within the Greater Bay Area. If you are interested in benchmarking your performance or want to learn more about internet speeds and performance in other markets worldwide, visit the Speedtest Intelligence®.
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