Beijing builds 5G base stations for faster networks

BEIJING - Chinese telecom giant China Unicom's Beijing subsidiary launched a "5G NEXT" plan Monday, to embrace faster wireless 5G networks in the near future.

With an aim to build an "open, sharing, prosperous, and win-win" 5G ecological system, the subsidiary will build 300 5G base stations this year in Beijing, one of the 16 pilot cities previously announced.

Other cities to pilot 5G technology include Tianjin, Qingdao, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Wuhan, Guiyang, Chengdu, Shenzhen, Fuzhou, Zhengzhou, and Shenyang.

The subsidiary will pilot the commercialization of 5G technology and test the 5G networks in the capital in 2018, according to Wang Chuanbao, its vice general manager.

Beijing will apply 5G technology in major projects and events in the next five years, such as those in Tongzhou District, Beijing's subsidiary administrative center, the capital's new international airport, the International Horticultural Exhibition 2019, and Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games, said Jiang Guangzhi, an inspector from the Beijing Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology.

The Beijing branch also said that they will work with enterprises to deploy 5G technology in the fields of self-driving, logistics, and unmanned aerial vehicles.