Shanghai to have 30,000 outdoor 5G base stations, 50,000 indoor small stations by end of 2020
Yesterday, Shanghai’s metro operator signed a strategic agreement with China Telecom, China Mobile, China Unicom and China Tower to deploy a 5G network that will cover the city’s all 297 metro stations this year. The project will integrate traditional and new infrastructure for high-quality development of urban infrastructure, Shentong Metro Group said, and will be future proofed by meeting IoT and smart city standards.
The project will focus on 5G applications in the areas of metro safety management, operation services, intelligent operation and equipment maintenance, and is slotted to be completed before the city hosts this year’s China International Import Expo in early November.
Shentong Metro Group and the telecom operators demoed a “5G + smart metro” application at last year’s China International Import Expo.
Shanghai has previously stated its commitment to investing 10 billion yuan (about 1.4 billion U.S. dollars) 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.
China, as a whole, has over 200,000 5G base stations currently in use, according to the country’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). Further, reports indicate that China will manage to deploy a total of 500,000 5G base stations this year.
“5G, as an important engine of the digital economy, is a key new infrastructure to realize the interconnection of all things and devices,” Wen Ku, a MIIT spokesman reportedly said.
