The city of Xi’an, the capital of China’s Shaanxi province, aims to install a total of 25,000 5G base stations by 2022, Chinese press reported.
Xi’an will deploy 9,000 new 5G base stations in the coming months to reach a total of 13,000 by the end of the year.
This coverage will allow the city to provide 5G in main urban areas as well as in industrial parks, transportation lines and tourist attractions, according to the report.
The city is scheduled to build 7,000 and 5,000 new 5G base stations in 2021 and 2022, respectively, bringing the total number in the city to 25,000 and covering the major urban areas and key areas in outlying districts.
The city also plans to create 20 to 30 innovative applications of 5G in fields such as advanced manufacturing, smart cities and artificial intelligence by the end of 2022.
Also, Chinese telcos are currently working to build 4,010 5G base stations in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.
The operators will invest nearly CNY 1.44 billion ($204 million) to build the 5G base stations, which will cover all prefecture-level cities in the region by the end of 2021. According to the regional Communications Administration, 5G technology will be initially used in industrial parks and tourist sites across the region.
Early this year, the regional government issued the implementation plan for promoting the construction and development of 5G in the region.
“Smart manufacturing, unmanned driving, and other major industries, including education and health care, are expected to develop rapidly with the help of 5G,” said Ma Zhuqing, director of the local Communication Administration.
Chinese carriers China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom will deploy a total of 500,000 5G base stations this year, according to the country’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).
By the end of March, Chinese operators had already installed 198,000 5G base stations and had 50 million 5G users, the Chinese government said said.
In a new phase of its 5G program, China Mobile is aiming to acquire over 232,000 5G base stations as it looks to extend coverage to 28 regions across China.
The Chinese carrier has already completed the first phase of its 5G network deployment.
China Mobile had already deployed nearly 50,000 5G base stations across the country as of the end of last year and currently provides 5G technology in 50 cities across China.
China Unicom said it will work with China Telecom to deploy 250,000 5G base stations across the country by the end of the third quarter.
In the first half of the year, the two operators seek to build 100,000 5G base stations in 47 prefectures and cities.
As of February 20, China Unicom had installed 64,000 5G base stations across the country.
