Photo taken on Feb. 26, 2018 shows a screen displaying the 5G technology at the booth of China's telecom giant Huawei during the 2018 Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain.(Photo: Xinhua)

China has established a joint laboratory to carry out 5G messaging-related technical verification work, planning to launch its first 5G message terminal certification within the year.

The lab, which opened on Thursday, was jointly established by a 5G messaging working group and seven other companies and associations, including the China Association of Communications Enterprises, and technology giant Huawei.

The core mission of the facility includes research on 5G messaging product evaluation plans, lab evaluations based on the plans, the provision of on-demand 5G messaging products - including 5G messaging terminals, CSP 5G messaging platforms and ChatBot applications - and other test verification and evaluation work. 

The lab will refine, summarize and work with partners in the sector to formulate industry standards.

The establishment of the lab is a step toward China's 5G commercialization on a massive scale, with China's 5G infrastructure construction leading the world.

China has built 916,000 5G base stations, accounting for 70 percent of the world's total, and the number of 5G connections has exceeded 365 million, accounting for 80 percent of the world's total, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said in July.

China's 5G mobile phone shipments reached 128 million in the first half of 2021. As of the end of June, 5G package users of China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom, the country's three major telecom operators, totaled about 500 million. 

"Nevertheless, despite the rapid development of 5G in China, the 5G messaging-related business is progressing slowly than expected," a veteran industry analyst told the Global Times on Thursday.

"The main reason is that 5G messaging is not that appealing compared with apps like WeChat that can provide similar functions - most importantly, they do it for free," the analyst said.

It may take some time for the service to develop, noted the analyst.

China's three major mobile operators in April last year unveiled plans to upgrade traditional text messaging services with the help of 5G.

They jointly released a white paper on 5G messaging services vowing to improve their text messaging systems to give users access to enhanced features including the sharing of high-resolution photos, files, locations and coupons.

While instant messaging apps such as WeChat already have such features, industry observers noted that 5G messaging enables interactive communication among a wider audience, and using 5G technology to share multimedia information.

Companies can use the service to customize multimedia promotions to potential customers.

Global Times