Shanghai targets over 77,000 5G base stations by end-2022

Over 4,000 major commercial buildings and key public institutions in Shanghai will have indoor 5G coverage by end-2023

China’s main financial hub, Shanghai, is expected to have more than 77,000 5G base stations by the end of 2023, Chinese press reported.

This number of base stations will ensure that 90% of the city has 5G network coverage, according to an action plan released by the Shanghai Communications Administration.

The plan also stated that over 4,000 major commercial buildings and key public institutions in Shanghai will have indoor 5G coverage and 70% of the city’s population should be 5G users by that time.

The action plan also stipulated that the average download speed in the city’s central areas should reach 1,000 Mbps, while the uplink speed should be 200 Mbps.

According to the report released by China Academy of Information and Communications Technology in early June, the average download speed in Shanghai was 462.93 Mbps in the first quarter of this year, while the city’s average uplink speed was 92.43 Mbps during the same period.

China’s capital Beijing had a total of 63,000 5G base stations as of the end of July, up 11,000 from the end of last year, according to previous press reports.

According to Sun Lixin, an official from the city’s communications administration, Beijing had 28.9 5G base stations per 10,000 people as of the end of July.

The official also noted that 5G services were available in 68% of Beijing’s 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th Ring roads and also in 84% of 145 key public areas including hospitals, railway stations, and subway stations.

Sun also highlighted that China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom provided fixed broadband services to 8.56 million subscribers in Beijing by the end of July. The number of gigabit-broadband users amounted to over 1 million, accounting for 12.3% of all broadband users in the city.

China had more than 2.2 million 5G base stations by the end of September, accounting for more than 60% of 5G base stations worldwide, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Chinese operators recorded a net gain of 31.4 million 5G subscribers in September, according to the operators’ latest available statistics.

China Mobile, the world’s largest operator in terms of subscribers, added a total of 18 million 5G subscribers during September. The carrier said it ended last month with 556.8 million 5G subscribers.

China Mobile has added a total of 170 million subscribers in the 5G segment since the beginning of the year.

Meanwhile, China Telecom added 7.44 million 5G subscribers last month to take its total 5G subscribers base to 251 million. Since the beginning of the year, the telco has added a total of 63.24 million 5G subscribers.

Also, China Unicom said it added a total of 6 million 5G subscribers during last month. The carrier ended September with 200.83 million 5G subscribers.