Leading telecom carrier to conduct 5G trials in 17 cities

Leading telecom carrier China Telecommunications Corp will conduct scale trials of 5G applications in 17 cities, as part of its broader push to gain a lead in the race to commercialize the fifth-generation communication technology.

Yang Jie, chairman of China Telecom, said on Thursday that the State-owned company will also set up 5G innovation centers to accelerate research and development of the superfast technology.

"Cross-industry cooperation is needed to speed up the maturity of 5G. China Telecom will step up efforts to push forward such collaboration," Yang said. "We aim to launch commercial 5G services in 2020."