Evolution of new infrastructure and positioning of the Internet of Things in the 15th Five-Year Plan

Recently, the Outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan was officially released, which makes forward-looking arrangements for new infrastructure and proposes to "build new infrastructure moderately ahead of time". The concept of new infrastructure was first proposed at the Central Economic Work Conference in 2018. With the economic and social development, its scope has been continuously evolving and has also undergone significant deepening and expansion in the past few years. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, new infrastructure will form a new structure and key areas.

Evolution of New Infrastructure from the 14th to the 15th Five-Year Plan

From the 14th to the 15th Five-Year Plan, the expression of new infrastructure has changed from "accelerating the construction of new infrastructure" to "building new infrastructure moderately ahead of time", and its scope has also witnessed new changes.

The 14th Five-Year Plan Period: Focusing on the Scale Coverage and Digital Foundation around the "Three Categories" Framework

Before the release of the 14th Five-Year Plan, the National Development and Reform Commission clearly stated that new infrastructure includes three major fields: information infrastructure, integrated infrastructure, and innovation infrastructure, forming a systematic classification system. The 14th Five-Year Plan continued to use this classification and for the first time clearly distinguished new infrastructure from traditional infrastructure (such as ultra-high voltage and intercity high-speed railways) in the top-level design, officially establishing it as an independent strategic category.

The core coverage scope and construction focus during this period were closely centered around the orientation of "accelerating the construction", with the core goal of building a globally leading digital foundation. Among them:

Information infrastructure, as the top priority of construction, focused on the large-scale deployment of 5G networks, gigabit optical networks, and data centers. The goal was to build the world's largest 5G network and gigabit optical network, launch the "East Data West Computing" project, build a national integrated big data center system, and strengthen the overall intelligent scheduling of computing power.

Integrated infrastructure emphasized the digital and intelligent transformation of traditional infrastructure, mainly covering fields such as intelligent transportation and smart energy, and promoted the penetration of industrial Internet platforms in key industries.

Innovation infrastructure mainly refers to major scientific and technological infrastructure and scientific and educational infrastructure that support scientific and technological innovation, providing platform support for technological R & D.

The coverage scope at this stage was characterized by "prominent core and clear boundaries". Of course, each field was mainly advanced in parallel.

The 15th Five-Year Plan: Forming a Coordinated System of "Six Networks", Emphasizing Integration Empowerment and Three - Dimensional Expansion

Entering the 15th Five-Year Plan period, the connotation of new infrastructure has been greatly enriched and deepened. Its coverage scope has broken through the "three categories" classification method and evolved into a three - dimensional, coordinated, and integrated modern infrastructure system with the "five networks" as the core framework.

The "six networks" system specifically includes: information and communication networks, the national integrated computing power network, satellite Internet, data infrastructure, low - altitude infrastructure, and blockchain networks, and promotes the digital and intelligent upgrading of infrastructure such as transportation, energy, and water conservancy. Compared with the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the evolution of this system is reflected in many aspects:

First, the strengthening of systematic coordination is more obvious. The 14th Five-Year Plan emphasized the 5G "network" and computing power "hub", while the 15th Five-Year Plan emphasizes the "national integrated computing power network" and the "satellite Internet constellation", shifting from "points" and "lines" to the operation of "networks" and "surfaces". For example, the national integrated computing power network not only requires scale growth but also focuses on the unification of standards such as computing power measurement and scheduling interfaces, aiming to break regional and vendor barriers and achieve flexible scheduling and trading of cross - regional computing power, which directly serves the efficient circulation of data elements. The satellite Internet has entered the stage of large - scale networking and commercialization from technological experiments. Constellation plans such as GW and Qianfan constitute a space - based network covering the world.

Second, the coverage scope expands to "space" and "elements", constructing a three - dimensional pattern. The 15th Five-Year Plan significantly expands the physical and logical boundaries of new infrastructure. For example, on the one hand, it extends to the aerospace: low - altitude infrastructure and satellite Internet are clearly included in the core system, integrating with the ground 5G/6G networks to provide full - domain coverage capabilities; on the other hand, it deepens into elements. Data infrastructure has been promoted to a position similar to that of computing power and networks for the first time, and its construction content will also cover the entire chain of data application facilities, with the goal of building a basic environment for the value and marketization of data elements.

Third, the construction orientation has changed from "digitalization" to "digital - intelligence", highlighting the in - depth integration of industries. The new infrastructure during the 15th Five-Year Plan period emphasizes more in - depth integration with the real economy. Its connotation is not only to support digital transformation but also to drive the digital - intelligent development of industries, reflecting the characteristics of new infrastructure as a complex systematic project. Its value lies in optimizing the resource allocation efficiency of the entire economic society.

Internet of Things - Related Fields Are Hidden in Multiple Directions of the 15th Five-Year Plan

The 14th Five-Year Plan proposed to "promote the comprehensive development of the Internet of Things and build the IoT access capabilities supporting fixed - mobile convergence and wide - narrow combination", and the 15th Five-Year Plan further updated it to "promote the independent iteration of the mobile Internet of Things". From the development of the Internet of Things in the past five years, the current IoT access capabilities of fixed - mobile convergence and wide - narrow combination have been gradually improved and can basically cover all IoT scenarios. In the future, the independent iteration of the mobile Internet of Things will start more from demand scenarios to further achieve the continuous upgrading of various access technologies and capabilities. From the perspective of the new infrastructure in the 15th Five-Year Plan, information and communication networks and satellite Internet also largely form the basis for the independent iteration of the mobile Internet of Things.

Information and Communication Networks: From Large - Scale 5G Coverage to Forward - Looking Leadership of 5G - A/6G

In the 14th Five-Year Plan, the core of information and communication network construction was to complete the large - scale coverage of 5G networks, and the world's largest 5G network has been built. By the end of 2025, China had built 4.838 million 5G base stations, with 34.4 per 10,000 people. A high - speed and ubiquitous mobile communication foundation has been built, providing a prerequisite for the popularization of digital applications and also an important foundation for the development of the Internet of Things.

Entering the 15th Five-Year Plan period, the deployment focus has shifted. The core tasks are: accelerating the large - scale commercialization of 5G - A mobile communication networks, building 500,000 5G - A base stations, and strengthening 6G technology R & D, standard formulation, and application verification. Through the construction and forward - looking layout of communication network infrastructure, leading network support will be provided for future industries such as "Artificial Intelligence +". Both 5G - A and 6G can fully reflect the iterative trend of the mobile Internet of Things.

Satellite Internet: From Experimental Verification to Large - Scale Commercialization and Ecosystem Construction

After ten years of development, the satellite Internet has entered the stage of large - scale and commercial promotion during the 15th Five-Year Plan period. Data shows that in 2025, China completed 92 space launch missions, including 51 commercial space launches. In 2025, 321 commercial satellites of China successfully entered orbit, accounting for 82% of the total number of satellites entering orbit throughout the year. Among them, the number of communication satellites entering orbit was the largest, reaching 230, a year - on - year increase of 90.1%, accounting for about 72% of the total number of commercial satellites entering orbit.

The networking of commercial satellites is accelerating. In 2025, the networking of China's commercial constellations entered the stage of large - scale deployment, and multiple key constellations completed key networking nodes. The GW constellation under China Satellite Network Group completed the launch of 16 groups of networking satellites throughout the year, with 126 networking satellites entering orbit, and the number of in - orbit networking satellites reaching 136, achieving broadband communication coverage across the country and key areas along the "Belt and Road", and supporting high - speed access in scenarios such as aviation interconnection and marine and maritime communication. The "Qianfan" constellation under Yuanxin Satellite also developed steadily. Three batches of 54 networking satellites were launched throughout the year, and the number of in - orbit networking satellites increased to 108, forming a global - coverage satellite Internet service capability with high bandwidth and low latency, which can meet the customized communication needs of government and enterprise customers. The "Geely" constellation launched 34 networking satellites in three batches throughout the year, completing the networking goal of 64 satellites in the first phase, achieving real - time global communication coverage except for the Arctic and Antarctic, and providing satellite Internet of Things services for scenarios such as intelligent connected vehicles and marine fisheries, becoming China's first low - orbit satellite communication constellation for global users. The "Tianqi" constellation launched a batch of 4 networking satellites throughout the year, and 37 in - orbit networking satellites stably operated to complete the first - phase global networking goal. The low - orbit Internet of Things communication service covers the world, supporting industry applications such as logistics tracking and environmental monitoring.

It can be seen that the satellite Internet has extended the iteration of the mobile Internet of Things from the ground to the sky and is expected to become a mainstream form of the mobile Internet of Things during the 15th Five-Year Plan period.

New infrastructure is an evolving field. The determination of its key directions will continue to have a strategic impact on China's economic structure and industrial competitiveness. As early as the end of 2018, the Internet of Things was included in the scope of new infrastructure. After the development during the 14th Five-Year Plan, the role of the new infrastructure of the Internet of Things has been continuously played. Entering the 15th Five-Year Plan, the Internet of Things is still an important part of new infrastructure and will be more deeply integrated into the construction of new infrastructure through more directions, providing support for the digital - intelligent transformation of the economic society.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Internet of Things Think Tank" (ID: iot101), author: Zhao Xiaofei. It is published by 36Kr with authorization.