A visitor tries a 5G-based panorama live broadcast device during the 2019 Smart China Expo in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, Aug. 26, 2019. (Xinhua/Tang Yi)

Major telecommunication corporations such as China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom have rolled out measures to keep old users and attract new ones in the competition of 5G commercial use.

China Mobile officially launched an activity on Sept. 20 that allows users to reserve 5G services through various channels. It also offers discounts for the participants of the activity when buying 5G mobile phones and data packages.

Over 710,000 users had participated in the activity by 3 p.m. on Sept.22.

China Mobile is accelerating the commercial use of 5G and is expected to release its 5G plans in October, said Xu Ximing, vice general manager of the marketing department at the company. Xu also said that customers would have easy access to 5G services without having to change their memory cards, phone numbers, or registering.

Industry insiders pointed out that the lowest cost the company's 5G packages would be is around 200 yuan, basically the same as that of the China Unicom and China Telecom.

While generating new opportunities, 5G put the operators under pressure with relatively high construction costs, with the costs of the three corporations on 5G expected to reach 41 billion yuan in 2019.

China Unicom and China Telecom have decided to team up to build one nationwide 5G network to reduce construction costs.

China Mobile is striving to take full use of its current 5G networks. Up to now, the company has built 29,000 5G base stations in 52 major cities and started 5G construction in 300 cities.

Certainly, the telecom giants will be faced with higher requirements related to 5G networks, packages and services since the Chinese government has started allowing subscribers to freely switch networks to boost competition in favor of minor players.

China Unicom has already introduced such a program that enables users from some cities to change service providers without changing numbers.