Shanghai authorities noted that that investments in 5G infrastructure represented 34.2% of total telecom investment in the first half of the year
The city of Shanghai ended August with the highest density of 5G base stations in China after a net addition of 2,671 5G sites in the month, taking its total to 88,000, Chinese news portal DVBCN reported.
According to recent data from the Shanghai Municipal Communications Administration, 5G base station density reached a total of 13.8 sites per square kilometer and accounted for 37.2% of total mobile sites in the city.
According to the report, Shanghai has 34.3 5G sites per 10,000 people, ranking third in the country.
The report also noted that Shanghai ended August with a total of 16.5 million 5G users, which accounted for 36.4% of total mobile subscribers.
The Shanghai Municipal Communications Administration also highlighted that investments in 5G infrastructure represented 34.2% of total telecom investment in the first half of the year.
Local news agency Xinhua had previously reported that the city of Shenzhen expects to take 5G density to 42 sites per 10,000 people by the end of this year, after deploying an additional 10,000 sites. The report stated that Shenzhen currently has nearly 65,000 5G sites.
China Mobile already installed 1.8 million 5G sites nationwide, while China Telecom and China Unicom jointly rolled out nearly 1.2 million, according to recent reports.
Chinese operators had outperformed the country’s own construction target for 5G base stations, deploying almost 3 million by the end of June, six months ahead of schedule, according to local newspaper South China Morning Post.
According to the report, Chinese operators deployed nearly 600,000 5G base stations in the April-June period alone.
Zhao Zhiguo, chief engineer at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) had said that the number of 5G base stations in China had reached 2.937 million as of the end of June, covering all urban areas of prefecture-level and county-level cities.
A separate report by the Global Times stated that China will explore more use scenarios for 5G technology in a wide range of sectors including industry, mineral mining and ports operation, with more than 3,000 enterprises expected to build 5G-wired factories in 2023.
5G has been applied in 60 major economic categories in China and is expanding to sectors including manufacturing, medical treatment, education and transport, Zhao said.
The report also highlighted that the Chinese authorities will continue to expand 5G coverage in major scenarios in urban areas as well as rural regions. In addition, efforts will also be made to promote 5G RedCap’s development to further reduce costs and increase application scale, according to Zhao.