06/07/2020
On 9 June 2020, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) published the list of telecommunication equipment which were issued network access licenses during May 2020.
China’s network access license system applies to telecommunication terminal equipment and to radio communication equipment that is connected to the public telecommunication network; as well as to telecommunication equipment that involves interconnection between networks. Equipment under the system must receive MIIT’s license in order to be able to access to the public telecommunication network or to be sold in China. For new telecommunication equipment with no corresponding national or sectoral standards, a trial approval document can be released after inspection and examination, which will need to be converted in the official network access license once corresponding national and sectoral standards are published.
The list features a total of 398 pieces of equipment that received network access license in May 2020, 49 of which belonging to foreign enterprises – including Apple, Cisco Systems, Ale International and HMD Global. The percentage of newly-licensed equipment from foreign enterprises was slightly higher in May 2020 compared to the previous month, but still at around 10% of the total (in April 2020, 57 out of 556 newly-licensed equipment belonged to foreign enterprises). Although openness has become an important trend of China’s telecommunication development, efforts still need to be significantly scaled up.
It is also noteworthy that the vast majority of newly-licensed equipment in May 2020 involving core technologies, such as 5G base stations and 5G mobile phones, belonged to domestic companies.
