China Mobile plans to build over 50,000 new base stations to offer fifth-generation cellular technology for commercial applications in more than 50 cities this year, the telecom giant announced during a press conference on Tuesday.
Company chairman Yang Jie spoke at the China Mobile 5G+ conference in Shanghai on June 25 and said the company aimed to expand 5G commercial services to all Chinese cities above the prefecture level by 2020, Xinhua News Agency reported.
Earlier this month, on June 6, the Chinese government issued 5G licenses to four operating companies, marking the country’s official entry into the 5G commercial arena.
Fifth-generation technology is seen as presenting higher value as it provides infrastructure for deep integration of cross-domain and multi-level industries, Yang said, plus facilitating economic and social development by supporting advanced digital applications.
He said China Mobile has the largest 4G network in the world at present, with more than 2.4 million base stations, which is more than half the total in his country, and nearly a third of all around the globe.
The company owes two bands of 2.6GHz and 4.9GHz for 5G construction, which should help it build networks at low cost and a degree of efficiency.