Shenzhen becomes first Chinese city with full 5G coverage

The municipal government of China’s Shenzhen announced that the city’s 5G deployment is fully completed.

This makes it the first city in China to to achieve full-scale 5G deployment.

The city had deployed 46,480 5G base stations, Mayor Chen Rugui said during a recent industry event.

Shenzhen, a southern tech hub in Guangdong Province, was one of the first pilot cities of the 5G network in China. The city, with more than 12.5 million residents, is home to telecoms giant Huawei Technologies and other Chinese tech companies including ZTE and Tencent Holdings.

Jia Xingdong, director of Shenzhen municipal bureau of industry and information technology, said that the city will now promote the development of 5G industries by making a number of breakthroughs in 5G technologies and building a comprehensive 5G application ecosystem.

China’s capital Beijing built a total of 5,135 5G base stations in the first half of this year, according to recent press reports. Beijing will complete the construction of 13,000 5G base stations this year.

By June, the total number of 5G base stations in Beijing had reached 22,500, said Tan Xuxiang, head of the Beijing Municipal Commission of Development and Reform.

Meanwhile, Shanghai has previously stated its commitment to investing CNY 10 billion ($1.4 billion) in 5G network construction this year, with the city anticipating 30,000 outdoor 5G base stations and 50,000 indoor small stations built by the end of 2020.

Chinese operators built a total of 257,000 new 5G base stations in the first half of the year, local news agency Xinhua previously reported, citing data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

The total number of 5G base stations in China had reached 410,000 by the end of June, MIIT data showed. Chinese mobile operators are expected to deploy over 600,000 5G base stations by the end of the year, covering cities above the prefecture level in the country.

Government data also showed that the shipments of 5G phones had reached 86.23 million units in China as of the end of June, said Wen Ku, an official with the MIIT.

In June 2019, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) officially issued licenses for the launch of commercial 5G networks in the country. Those 5G permits were granted to China Mobile, China Unicom, China Telecom and state-owned broadcaster China Broadcasting Network.

Itis forecasted that 28% of China’s mobile connections will be running on 5G networks by 2025, accounting for about one-third of all 5G connections globally, according to a previous report by the GSMA. RCR Wireless