The 5G RedCap industry chain is expected to mature in 2025, with more than 10 enterprises carrying out chip planning.
As a "lightweight" 5G technology, RedCap continues many of the features of 5G by supporting slicing, terminal power saving, coverage enhancement, 5GLAN and other technologies, and can be introduced to different application scenarios on demand, effectively meeting the needs of 5G to B business.
At the relevant meeting, Li Fuchang, director of the Wireless Technology Research Center of China Unicom Research Institute, predicted that in March 2023, the industry will launch the first generation of RedCap commercial products (including network equipment and chip modules); it is expected that the RedCap industry chain will gradually mature in 2025.
Recently, the commercial progress of the RedCap industry chain has been disclosed, and the three major operators have made rapid progress in RedCap. Relevant equipment manufacturers, including Huawei, ZTE, China Xinke, Ericsson and Nokia Bell, have completed the tests of the key technical functions and outfield performance of 5G base stations supporting RedCap. In the aspect of chip and terminal, chip-based RedCap test terminals such as ASR and Ziguang Zhanrui participated in the key technology and outfield testing, while Bieber and vivo participated in the key technology test based on the terminal prototype.
In the "5G Application" Action Plan (2021-2023) issued by ten departments such as the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, it is clearly pointed out to speed up the research and development and industrialization of lightweight 5G chip modules to further improve the cost performance of terminal modules.
In 2022, the industry promoted the maturity of RedCap technology and product research and development. at present, more than 10 companies have planned RedCap chips, and 5 chips have participated in testing this year.
In 2023, the industry will continue to promote the process of RedCap chip terminal products, and the price of 5G modules is expected to drop by 80% to about 60 yuan in the future, which is expected to promote the migration of 2G / 3G and other honeycomb terminals to 5G.
