5G Is Officially Here, but It's Expensive...

By That's, October 31, 2019

China will officially roll out commercial 5G tomorrow, and prices are shockingly high.

According to Southern Metropolis Daily, China Mobile will divide its 5G packages into personal and family data plans, offering five options for each plan. The personal data packages range from RMB128 for 30GB to RMB598 for 300GB, while prices for family data packages will start from RMB169 for 30GB.

What’s worth noting is that China Mobile’s 5G services come in three different speeds – 300Mbps, 500Mbps and 1Gbps, which depends on the data plan one selects as well as the service signal strength of the users’ location. Users who go over their data plan limit will be charged RMB5 per extra 1GB.

Both China Telecom and China Unicom will have seven 5G data packages on offer, each with plans as low as RMB129 for 30GB.

There are, however, discounts for old users. For example, five-year China Mobile users are in line for a 30% discount. Meanwhile, even if you signed up for China Mobile yesterday, you can get a 20% discount.

Of course, for mobile phone users who look forward to enjoying the lightning speed of 5G, they need to get their hands on a phone that supports the fifth generation of cellular network technology. Huawei, China’s number one 5G developer, has three 5G-supporting phones available in the market, with the cheapest Huawei Mate 30 (5G) priced at RMB5,499. Popular mobile phone maker Xiaomi has a more economical option: Its Xiaomi 9 Pro (5G) costs RMB3,699, which is the cheapest 5G phone in the market at the moment, according to Engadget.

Starting tomorrow, commercial 5G service will be available in 50 Chinese cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

[Cover image via Pixabay]