China Broadnet had officially launched 5G services on June 27
China Broadnet, the country’s new telecom carrier, recently rolled out its commercial 5G services in nine provincial-level regions across China as part of a trial program, local state-news service Xinhua reported.
According to the report, these new regions add to the 20 provincial-level regions where China Broadnet’s 5G services were available for trial commercial use since June 27, bringing the total number of provincial-level regions with its 5G coverage to 29.
China Broadnet officially launched 5G services in June.
The operator already supplies cable services and became the country’s fourth operator when formally inaugurated in 2020, having previously acquired a license for commercial 5G services in 2019. The carrier was initially known as China Broadcasting Network before rebranding earlier this year.
According to the reports, China Broadnet will use 5G infrastructure owned by China’s largest mobile operator, China Mobile.
Last year, China Broadnet and China Mobile said they aim to initially deploy 400,000 5G base stations as part of the companies’ efforts to launch a shared 5G network.
The two companies expect this shared network to reach nationwide coverage within the next two years. In May 2020, the company had announced plans to deploy a nationwide 700 MHz 5G network in cooperation with China Mobile.
Under the terms of the deal, China Broadnet has access to China Mobile’s 2.6 GHz network and receives guidance and investment from the mobile operator. China Mobile will share its 2.6 GHz network on a paid basis, with China Broadnet able to access its 2G, 4G and 5G infrastructure prior to the launch of the 700 MHz network.
China Broadnet’s five largest shareholders are China Broadcasting Network Corporation, with a 51% stake, State Grid Information & Telecommunication, Alibaba Venture Capital Management, Guangdong Radio Television Network and Beijing All Media and Culture.
China ended June with a total of 927.44 million subscribers in the 5G segment, according to the carriers’ latest available figures.
Chinese operators recorded a net gain of 28.2 million 5G subscribers in June.
China Mobile, the world’s largest operator in terms of subscribers, added a total of 15.81 million 5G subscribers during June. The operator said it ended last month with 510.94 million 5G subscribers.
Chinese operators have already deployed over 1.85 million 5G base stations across the country, according to the latest available data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
The ministry reported that Chinese carriers deployed nearly 300,000 5G base stations during the second quarter of the year.
Also, mobile operators are expected to add a total of 600,000 base stations to boost 5G infrastructure across China during 2022.
