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The southern city of Shenzhen, China’s reform showcase, is seeking public comments on a set of draft measures to push for 5G commitments and innovations with a focus on breakthroughs in key components and chips, according to local industrial and information technology bureau. 

The drive for technological independence also eyes 6G-related research and experiments.

The city aims for a quantum leap in 5G network equipment chips, encouraging firms to make technological breakthroughs revolving around chips for base station and baseband units, base station radio frequency, optical communication, server storage and server CPU, among 5G key components and chips, for there to be homegrown dependence and controllability, per the draft measures posted on the bureau’s website on Friday.

The local government is seeking public comments through to May 26.

The city has plans for a project to incubate pioneering 5G firms with key support for 5G firms with annual output of no less than 10 billion yuan ($1.54 billion).

The draft measures also include local fiscal funding of 1 billion yuan per annum for five consecutive years for the 5G push, in addition to support for social capital to launch a 10 billion-yuan 5G industrial development fund.

Qualified 5G businesses would also be supported to seek a listing in the Shenzhen market and raise funds through IPOs and bond issuances.

The measures also aim for advances in 5G applications in varied user scenarios and industries and support major 5G firms in ramping up the popularity of 5G applications in the global market. 

Additionally, the city has also called for firms, universities and scientific research institutes to begin 6G-related research and trials, striving toward an early occupation of the strategic height in international mobile communications standards and spectrums.

In a written reply to the Global Times on Sunday, Mario Maniewicz, director of the Radiocommunication Bureau at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), wrote that it might be too early to talk about 6G, since there is a need to identify what the market requires, however the the ITU-R relies on various organizations to provide inputs for its June and October meetings in 2021, to help their work on a new report on future technology trends toward 2030 and beyond.

“We invite all companies, including satellites companies, and representatives from other industries and verticals to contribute to this exciting work of the ITU-R on the future of international mobile telecommunications (IMT) standards,” Maniewicz said, reckoning this work could include anticipating new use cases for IMT and subsequently the identification of any gaps or new technical enablers necessary in the 2030 timeframe.
 

Global Times