China Mobile to make country's first 5G call during MWC Shanghai

China Mobile will make the country's first 5G phone call based on the latest SA (Stand Alone) technology during the  Mobile World Congress Shanghai, the city’s biggest telecommunications fair held annually.

The two-day telecom show, which starts tomorrow, allows China’s telecom carriers to show their prowess on the development of 5G, a next-generation mobile communications technology. The 5G, which will be commercially available between 2019 and 2020, offers 20 to 50 times faster Internet connection compared with the current 4G networks and can support various new applications, Shanghai Daily learned today. 

China Mobile, the world's biggest telecom carrier with over 800 million mobile subscribers, will be using the 5G SA technology, a highly-advanced system compared to the current 4G infrastructure, to make the 5G call.

China Telecom, the country’s top fixed-line operator, released a 5G tech white paper today in Shanghai. The carrier is set  to operate a network combining 4G and 5G when the country issues 5G licenses.

With 5G, mobile data consumption will be eight times higher compared with now, said Ericsson, one of the world's major telecom equipment vendors, in a report today.