China's annual Postal and Telecommunication Expo (PT Expo) kicked off on Oct 14 in Beijing. International participants attended the three-day event in person and online to explore the latest 5G trends.

A year ago, Chinese Ministry of Industry & Information Technology (MIIT) announced the launch of 5G commercialization at the event. This year, it said that 5G commercialization is speeding up.

"More than 600,000 5G base stations have been built and over 150 million 5G terminal users registered," said Liu Liehong, vice-minister of Industry and Information Technology.

The number of 5G base stations in China accounts for over 70 percent of the world's total, according to the ministry.

Such large-scale construction in the sector will moderately continue in the next three-year 5G introductory phase in China.

Today, 5G has been integrated with new technologies and models, spawning many fresh applications and services in various sectors.

"All of these applications are already gaining momentum based on 5G deployment. We can say this true consumer service is already regarded as successful," said Daisy Zhu, vice-president of wireless marketing at Huawei.

Telecommunications experts point to new services for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

"There are applications like cloud broadcasting, 5G medical treatment and holographic interview. And these would not be restricted only to the Winter Olympic Games, but will be shared with the entire society," said Lv Shuo, product manager with China Unicom, one of the telecom giants in China.

That trend is spreading gradually to industrial production with 5G integrating with Internet of Things and artificial intelligence.

Yang Li, field marketing manager with Ericsson North East Asia Market Area, said that the solutions to this will make smart factories and manufacturing more intelligent. "Through 5G deployment, the digital twin and the digital thread will realize," he explained.

As 5G expands, companies are encouraged to cooperate among themselves and other countries.

A year after 5G was commercialized in China, the technology is starting to boost the country's digital economy. And it's expected to play an even bigger role in integrating the telecommunication sector with more and more industries. The future of 5G looks promising.