China Unicom plans to launch a 5G trial network in major cities, including Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Nanjing, Hangzhou and urban Xiong’an New Area.
The state-owned telecom and the Shanghai government also inked an agreement to improve the city’s fiber optic broadband networks and high-speed mobile communication network level, National Business Daily reported.
According to the agreement, the company will invest 15 billion yuan (US$2.24 billion) in Shanghai by 2021 to turn the city into a “Dual Gigabit broadband city” on both mobile communication networks and fixed broadband networks.
The carrier’s chairman, Wang Xiaochu, confirmed at a company event that 5G hotspot coverage will be made available in 33 cities and the company will also deploy a 5G private network and create 5G application scenarios in every walk of life in several cities.
China hopes to have pre-commercialized 5G networks within 2019 and large-scale 5G coverage by 2020.