The global 5G market is projected to grow to 1.6 billion users in the next five years. Much of that growth will come from China based on operators’ roll-out plans, said GSMA, an international association in the mobile industry.

The country will have over 600 million 5G subscribers by that time, accounting for nearly 40 percent of the global total, Sihan Bo Chen, head of GSMA Greater China, told Xinhua.

Up to 85 percent of the Chinese population will subscribe to mobile services by 2025, while 88 percent of those subscribers will have smartphones and 36 percent will use 5G services, according to CEO of GSMA John Hoffman.

He said: “We welcome China’s continued effort to promote openness to build a ‘shared future’ through collaboration and cooperation.”

GSMA has released a white paper on artificial intelligence (AI) in network case studies together with China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, Huawei, and other companies.

“We hope the development of the mobile network in China will inspire the rest of the world and bring next-generation AI services to life,” said Sihan Bo Chen.

A massive 5G smartphone technology boom in 2020 was recently predicted by Wall Street bank Goldman Sachs. The bank’s analyst said that despite the manufacturing bottlenecks for 5G smartphone components, Chinese telecom giant Huawei is expected to benefit meaningfully. Huawei made the first global 5G call and launched the first 5G terminal device in 2018.

The tech company, which is currently caught in the crossfire of the US-China trade war, reported that its global share of telecoms equipment expanded to 28.1 percent in the first half of this year. It remains ahead of global rivals in the 5G market, having announced more than 60 commercial 5G contracts “with leading global carriers” to date.