Author: Zhao Xiaofei | Original
The Political Bureau of the Central Committee meeting held on April 28, 2026, explicitly proposed strengthening the planning and construction of the water network, new-type power grid, computing power network, next-generation communication network, urban underground pipeline network, and logistics network. The State Council Executive Meeting held on May 9 made more precise and specific deployments regarding these "six networks". Industry experts believe that systematically advancing the planning and construction of the "six networks" is not only an urgent need to expand effective investment and stabilize the overall economy, but also a strategic move to cultivate new quality productive forces and shape future competitive advantages.
As one of the "six networks", the next-generation communication network bears the important responsibility of connecting the main information arteries, becoming a crucial support for driving the digital transformation of the real economy and cultivating new quality productive forces. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) recently stated that research is underway on the construction of the next-generation communication network, and its planning and construction will be a priority for promoting the development of the information and communications industry. From the author's perspective, the upgrading and transformation of the IoT (Internet of Things) is also one of the core tasks in the construction of the next-generation communication network. Paying close attention to the IoT demands in the economy and society, and planning the functions of the next-generation communication network, is a vital path to enhance the synergistic efforts of the next-generation communication network with the other five networks, as well as a key approach to leveraging the next-generation communication network to assist the digital and intelligent upgrading of various industries.
What Role Does the IoT Play in the Next-Generation Communication Network?
The next-generation communication network is not a single communication technology networking, but a comprehensive foundational communication network adapted to the development of the digital economy and new quality productive forces, integrating space, air, ground, and sea, and deeply converging communication, sensing, computing, and intelligence. The role the IoT plays in the next-generation communication network can be examined through the "new" characteristics of this network.
At a recent press conference held by the State Council Information Office, Xie Cun, Director of the Information and Communications Administration of the MIIT, stated that the "new" aspects of the next-generation communication network mainly include four dimensions:
First, the connection objects expand from traditional individual users to multiple entities such as humans, machines, objects, and embodied intelligence; second, the coverage breaks through traditional ground limitations, expanding towards comprehensive coverage integrating space, air, ground, and sea; third, connection capabilities achieve significant improvements in determinism and stability, better meeting the differentiated needs of industrial applications; fourth, network functions evolve from simple information transmission to the deep integration of multiple capabilities including communication, sensing, computing, intelligence, and security.
Based on the above four characteristics, the IoT plays a positive and important role in each aspect. Specifically, this includes:
First, regarding the expansion of connection objects to diversified entities, besides human connectivity, the IoT is undoubtedly the leader in the connection capabilities for machines, objects, and embodied intelligence. Over the past two decades, the development focus of the IoT has been steadily enhancing connection capabilities, making significant contributions to the interconnection of machines and objects. Various types of physical terminals, such as Industrial IoT, Internet of Vehicles (IoV), smart homes, and smart meters, have achieved extensive connectivity. Data from IoT Analytics shows that by the end of 2025, global IoT connections exceeded 21 billion, several times the number of human connections. Large-scale connectivity has driven the maturity of various technologies such as cellular IoT, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, and LoRa. Today, given the rapid advancement of AI (Artificial Intelligence) technologies, new forms such as AIoT and embodied intelligence are constantly emerging. For these physical entities with stronger AI capabilities to function effectively, they require IoT connection capabilities with higher stability and reliability. This is exactly what IoT connection providers need to focus on, building a robust communication network for the latest AI capabilities to sink to all physical entities.
Second, regarding the breakthrough of coverage beyond traditional ground limitations, in the current construction of comprehensive coverage networks integrating space, air, ground, and sea, IoT has always been one of the core functions. Currently, driven by the advancement of fiber optic and wireless networks, ground network coverage has achieved support for most physical entities, while space, air, and sea networks are also rapidly evolving. Taking satellite internet as an example, as one of the largest business formats in the current commercial aerospace market, both domestic and international players are accelerating their layouts. Among them, satellite IoT, as a crucial component of satellite internet, has initially formed a commercial closed loop. The standardization organization 3GPP first introduced the IoT-NTN standard for satellite IoT in the R17 release, and it continues to be strengthened in subsequent standard evolutions. Overseas satellite operators such as Iridium, Globalstar, and Skylo have obtained continuous revenue from satellite IoT. For instance, the ARPU for Iridium's IoT data services is $7.7, and the ARPU for Globalstar's commercial IoT users is $4.21. In China, the enterprise Guodian Gaoke has obtained the first satellite IoT trial commercial license. These related industrial developments provide communication guarantees for various scenarios in space, air, ground, and sea, and are also an important part of the next-generation communication network construction.
Third, regarding the improvement of connection capabilities, especially for the differentiated needs of industries, this is precisely the main issue that IoT connections need to solve. In the applications of various industries in the national economy, besides human connectivity needs, more production and operation scenarios require the connection of physical entities such as various machines, equipment, vehicles, and assets to obtain real-time and authentic data, thereby laying the foundation for improving overall digital management capabilities. Taking the Industrial Internet as an example, the application of 5G + Industrial Internet in the past few years has, to a certain extent, improved IoT capabilities to meet the needs of complex industrial scenarios. It designs connection capabilities more suitable for scenario needs for equipment such as mining equipment, special vehicles, production line quality inspection, and industrial robots. It renovates the 5G access network and core network, adopting dedicated frequencies or network slicing to form dedicated private networks. Currently, there are over 26,000 "5G + Industrial Internet" projects under construction nationwide. It can be said that the determinism and stability requirements proposed by the differentiated applications of the Industrial Internet for the next-generation communication network are also requirements proposed for the IoT.
Fourth, regarding the deep integration and evolution of network functions, the IoT has currently entered the AIoT (Artificial Intelligence of Things) stage, taking the deep integration of connection, sensing, and intelligence as an important path for industrial development. As early as over a decade ago, when defining the IoT, the industry pointed out its multi-layer architecture, including the perception layer, network layer, platform layer, and application layer, encompassing communication, sensing, computing, intelligence, and security. During the industrial development process, communication became the most concerned field in the industry, so the market mostly defaulted that connection is the most core function of the IoT. Given the expansion of demands and technological progress, the integration of connection with sensing and intelligence has become the main theme of the IoT, also building a foundation for the next-generation communication network.
Building the Next-Generation Communication Network: In Which Areas Should the IoT Focus Its Efforts?
Building the next-generation communication network requires efforts from multiple aspects. As an important component of the next-generation communication network, the IoT is crucial for building new digital information infrastructure oriented towards the needs of the intelligent era. The author believes that efforts can be made from the following aspects to contribute to the construction of the next-generation communication network.
First, IoT connections need to accelerate generational upgrading. The outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan proposes to accelerate the large-scale commercialization of 5G-A mobile communication networks, build 500,000 5G-A base stations, and strengthen 6G technology research and development, standard formulation, and application verification. The mobile communication network is an important cornerstone of the IoT. MIIT data shows that by the end of May, the three basic telecom enterprises developed 2.98 billion mobile IoT terminal users, a net increase of 91.67 million compared to the end of last year. However, most of these nearly 3 billion mobile IoT terminal users adopt 4G network standards, including LTE Cat.1 and Cat.4. Given the rapid growth of IoT connections, the pressure on the scale of effective connections that 4G can bear is increasing. At the same time, operators will not make large-scale investments in 4G networks, while the number of IoT terminals borne by 5G networks is very small, and 5G RedCap connection growth is slow. Under the trend of commercial evolution of mobile communication networks, the industry needs to plan ahead, accelerate the promotion of generational upgrading of IoT connections, gradually reduce reliance on 4G networks, increase the adoption of 5G, and promote the large-scale commercialization of 5G RedCap and eRedCap, reflecting the latest achievements of the next-generation communication network. Similarly, with the emergence of new connection technologies such as satellite IoT and passive IoT, the industry needs to further explore more scenarios and accelerate the exploration of the adaptation between new-generation connection technologies and scenarios.
Second, IoT network capabilities need to be further improved. Just as the next-generation communication network improves determinism and stability, IoT practitioners need to focus on how to build highly reliable and highly stable network capabilities. This can be strengthened and promoted from two aspects. On the one hand, deeply explore the needs of various industries and provide dedicated IoT connection capabilities. A typical example is providing wireless private network services. Previously, the General Offices of the MIIT and four other departments jointly issued the "Notice on Carrying out Pilot Projects for Industrial 5G Standalone Private Networks", releasing the policy dividends of 5G standalone private networks. This is precisely aimed at industry application needs, providing highly reliable and highly stable network guarantees, among which the 5G + Industrial Internet private network will be the focus. On the other hand, following the current development trend of physical AI, provide stable IoT connection capabilities for new terminals formed in the development of IoT AI. For example, regarding the low-latency and high-uplink demands generated in the training, inference, swarm networking, and collaboration of forms such as humanoid robots and drones, various parts such as network connections, IoT modules, and connection management platforms all need to be further upgraded to ensure the effective operation of these terminals.
Third, scenarios for IoT applications need to be further released. The State Council Information Office press conference also proposed leveraging the supporting role of the next-generation communication network as a digital foundation to collaboratively empower the integrated application innovation of the water network, new-type power grid, computing power network, urban underground pipeline network, and logistics network. Similarly, the IoT plays an important role in empowering the other five networks, and these five networks themselves provide important scenarios for IoT applications. In addition, the thousands of industries in the national economy are an even larger stage for the IoT to fully exert its functions. In the process of digital and intelligent upgrading of various industries, besides introducing current popular large models and intelligent agents, consideration can also be given to interconnected transformation of important physical assets, machines, equipment, and instruments in the industry and enterprise, forming a foundation for digital and intelligent upgrading, and also releasing more scenarios for IoT applications.
Fourth, the value realization of the IoT needs to be further highlighted. Public data shows that in 2024, China's mobile IoT comprehensive revenue was 45.271 billion yuan, corresponding to 2.6 billion IoT terminal users, most of which is revenue from connections. Looking only at existing data, the value brought by the IoT seems relatively limited. However, constrained by the difficulty of statistics, many implicit values brought by the IoT are difficult to estimate. Even for some explicit values, it is hard to comprehensively calculate the true value of the IoT due to the difficulty of measurement methods. This is the case for the IoT, and the same applies to the value calculation of the entire communication network; explicit data cannot comprehensively reflect the value of the communication network. Therefore, in the future, it is necessary to further study the value measurement forms of the IoT, striving to objectively reflect more explicit and implicit values, and also giving practitioners more confidence.
Fifth, the security governance of IoT devices needs to be further strengthened. The IoT has penetrated into all fields of people's production and life, capable of acquiring rich data, and the security and privacy issues it faces have always been one of the biggest challenges in the industry. When building the next-generation communication network, strengthening security governance capabilities is the top priority in the IoT field. In recent years, the means to address IoT security have been continuously increasing. Besides technological progress, some institutional security measures have also been implemented. A typical institutional arrangement is the implementation of an IoT security label mechanism. This mechanism originated in several overseas countries; Singapore, Finland, Germany, the UK, and Japan have already implemented it, and the US is also vigorously promoting its implementation. In July this year, the "Measures for the Administration of Cybersecurity Labels" jointly issued by the Cyberspace Administration of China and two other departments began to be implemented. Although it is not specifically targeted at IoT products, IoT products account for the majority of products with internet connectivity functions, playing an important role in the network and data security governance of IoT products.
The curtain has already risen on the construction of the next-generation communication network. As an important component of the next-generation communication network, the IoT needs to face new requirements, accelerate the upgrading of its own capabilities, speed up the expansion of application scenarios, and contribute to the construction of the national "six networks".