Decoding the Reality of China’s 5G Private Network Leadership

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China is widely described as the largest private 5G market in the world, but understanding the scale of deployment requires careful reading of how figures are defined and reported. Unlike most other regions, private 5G in China is almost entirely delivered as hybrid private networks that use operator-owned licensed spectrum and are integrated into the public network. Fully standalone enterprise-owned private networks are rare and remain the exception rather than the rule.

By late 2025, the overall scale had become clear. Industry reporting from November 2025 indicated that China had reached roughly 64,000 private 5G networks. This figure broadly reflects operator-provided 5G virtual private networks rather than independent on-premise systems. It aligns reasonably well with figures disclosed by the three national operators, even though each uses slightly different terminology when describing its deployments.

Earlier disclosures provide useful context. In early 2025, China Telecom reported building more than 16,000 private 5G networks and supporting tens of thousands of applications. China Unicom cited around 15,000 networks, while China Mobile referred to more than 46,000 commercial 5G projects. These numbers are not directly comparable, as projects do not necessarily equate to distinct networks, but they collectively point to deployment at a scale unmatched in any other market.

A key source of confusion comes from the way two different terms are used in Chinese reporting. One is 5G virtual private networks, which refers to logical private networks delivered over shared public infrastructure using mechanisms such as network slicing, dedicated quality of service and secure logical isolation. The figure of around 64,000 networks falls into this category and represents the dominant private 5G model in China today.

The second term is 5G plus Industrial Internet projects. By mid-2025, public data pointed to more than 18,500 major projects nationwide. This number does not describe underlying network infrastructure. Instead, it refers to individual industrial use cases such as smart factories, port automation deployments, energy sites or healthcare applications. Multiple projects can and often do run on a single virtual private network, which explains why project counts and network counts diverge so significantly.

Seen in this context, the numbers are not contradictory. They reflect a layered model where a relatively smaller number of virtual private networks support a much larger number of industrial applications. This also explains why China can report both tens of thousands of networks and an even larger number of industrial use cases without implying one-to-one deployment.

The structure of the Chinese market underpins this approach. The national operators effectively control private 5G delivery, with enterprises consuming private connectivity as a managed service rather than owning spectrum or core infrastructure. This model has enabled rapid scale but has also limited enterprise autonomy compared with private network models emerging in Europe or North America.

There are signs that this could evolve. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has signalled support for trials of more independent private 5G networks, including guidance for operators and local authorities to help large enterprises and specialised industries access spectrum and support more flexible deployment models. There is limited precedent for this. In 2022, spectrum was assigned to COMAC, the state-owned aircraft manufacturer, in the 6 GHz and 25 GHz bands. However, this appears to be a special case, and if further allocations follow, they are likely to prioritise strategic state-owned industries.

Despite the impressive deployment figures, private 5G remains a relatively small contributor to operator revenues. China Mobile reported private 5G revenue of 8.7 billion yuan in 2024, with growth of over 60 percent year on year. In the first half of 2025, revenue reached 6.1 billion yuan, again growing by close to 60 percent. China Unicom reported similar growth rates in its government and enterprise segment without disclosing absolute figures, while China Telecom has not published detailed revenue data for private 5G.

Even for China Mobile, private 5G accounted for just over five percent of government and enterprise revenue and slightly more than one percent of overall core revenue in the first half of 2025. This underlines a consistent theme. Private 5G is growing rapidly but has not yet become a major revenue engine. Its importance lies more in strategic positioning, industry relationships and long-term digital transformation than in short-term financial returns.

Public data reinforces how deeply private 5G has been embedded into industrial digitalisation. By mid-2025, China had tens of thousands of virtual private networks supporting industrial, transport, healthcare and energy use cases nationwide. Almost all of these deployments follow the same hybrid model, delivered over operator infrastructure using licensed spectrum.

China’s approach to private 5G is therefore very different from models being pursued elsewhere. It favours speed, scale and operator control over enterprise ownership and independence. Whether regulatory signals translate into broader access to spectrum and more genuinely independent private networks remains uncertain. What is clear is that, when interpreted correctly, China’s private 5G numbers reflect a market that has already reached a scale no other region is currently close to matching.

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