SZ China’s first city to realize full 5G coverage


David Ho   |   August 19, 2020

Shenzhen has realized full 5G coverage with a total of 46,480 base stations having been installed by Aug. 14, Mayor Chen Rugui announced at a news conference organized by the Shenzhen Municipal Industry and Information Bureau at Futian Shangri-La, Shenzhen yesterday.

This makes it the first city in China to enter the 5G era, offering the next-generation of wireless networking at full scale.

People attend a press conference organized by the Shenzhen Municipal Industry and Information Bureau at Futian Shangri-La, Shenzhen yesterday. Shenzhen Mayor Chen Rugui announced at the event that the city has become the first in China to realize full 5G coverage. Zhong Huadeng

According to the bureau, the city had accomplished the goal of installing 45,000 base stations by July 26, one month ahead of the schedule. It ranks No. 1 in China in terms of density of base stations.

In an effort to become a global benchmark city in the construction and application of 5G networks, Shenzhen has unveiled measures to promote the high-quality 5G development and started construction of 5G base stations through cooperation with China Telecom, China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Tower Corp. Co. Ltd. in September last year.

To promote 5G applications, the city chose 10 fields including health care, education, transportation, policing and urban administration, and 10 industries, such as industrial Internet, smart households and smart industrial parks, to develop scenarios for the use of 5G technologies. Some application scenarios like Huawei 5G Intelligent Park, Tencent Cloud Gaming and Super High-definition Demonstration Area, Mawan Smart Port of China Merchants Bureau had set good examples.

During early stages of fighting against the COVID-19, Shenzhen enterprises assisted in the construction of 5G base stations at Leishenshan Hospital in Wuhan. New operation modes and scenarios like 5G+infrared temperature measurement, 5G+drone disinfection and 5G online conferences had been adopted. In the COVID-19 prevention and control, 5G had been widely used in online medical treatment, medical robotics, imaging and screening.

“The application of 5G is still at its starting stage. The application in industrial Internet, medical treatment and Internet of Vehicles is drawing wide attention,” said Wang Zhiqin, deputy director of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), at the event.

By the end of June, China had deployed more than 410,000 base stations across the country, and plans to establish 500,000 new ones by the end of 2020, a CAICT report outlined.

By the end of July, the total number of 5G users in China had surpassed 88 million, accounting for over 80 percent of the global 5G userbase and ranking it number one, according to the report.

Originally published @http://www.sz.gov.cn/