At the 2020 World 5G Conference, Yang Changfeng, Chief Designer of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) Project, stated that the BDS has already been widely applied across sectors including transportation, agriculture, forestry and fisheries, meteorology and surveying/mapping, and communications—delivering tangible benefits to national economic development and people's livelihoods. Meanwhile, he noted that with the advent of the 5G era, the integration of satellite navigation and mobile communications—the two foundational infrastructures—is accelerating, presenting highly promising prospects. Yang Changfeng revealed that China initiated efforts as early as 2012 to incorporate BeiDou into international mobile communication standards. 'Satellite navigation and mobile communications possess an inherent compatibility for integration. With the arrival of the 5G era, the convergence of these two critical infrastructures is accelerating—and the outlook is exceptionally promising.' Yang emphasized that satellite navigation supports the secure and efficient operation of mobile communication networks: it provides base stations with high-precision time synchronization; supplies location information for base station management and maintenance; and delivers precise positioning and navigation services for 5G network applications—thereby unlocking new blue-ocean opportunities in communication services built upon high-accuracy spatiotemporal references.
Yang Changfeng disclosed that the national integrated Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) system project—which aims to establish, by 2035, a more ubiquitous, integrated, and intelligent national PNT infrastructure—is currently advancing toward formal approval and launch. '5G and BeiDou constitute key components of the national integrated PNT project. Building innovative integration between BeiDou and 5G will promote convergence across technologies, networks, terminals, applications, and services.' Yang Changfeng stated that in the future, wherever communication is possible, navigation will also be available—and wherever navigation is available, communication will likewise be feasible. This vision will further propel human society into a new era of intelligent, information-driven development.
Last updated: 2026-03-08