China moves to propel mobile IoT development

BEIJING -- China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology unveiled a plan on Wednesday to push the development of the mobile Internet of things (IoT), aiming to boost the sector's supply, innovation capabilities and industrial value.

By 2027, China will strive to further improve its mobile IoT ecosystem, with the number of mobile IoT terminal connections expected to exceed 3.6 billion, according to the plan.

The country expects to support the establishment of more than 5 mobile IoT industrial clusters and set up over 10 mobile IoT industry demonstration bases by 2027, it said.

The plan outlined four key tasks, namely strengthening the foundational IoT network, enhancing industrial innovation capacity, boosting the integrated application of smart technologies, and fostering a favorable development environment.

China will promote the application of mobile IoT in fields such as intelligent connected vehicles, healthcare and smart homes, according to the plan.

For intelligent connected vehicles, it said efforts will be made to drive the application of mobile IoT in scenarios like driving monitoring and autonomous driving, and realize functions like information exchange and sharing, complex environment perception and intelligent decision-making.

The ministry said it will also work to accelerate the integration of mobile IoT with key industries to support their digital transformation and new industrialization.

By the end of July this year, the number of mobile IoT connections in China neared 2.55 billion, accounting for 59 percent of China's total mobile terminal connections, official data showed.