Shanghai to add 10,000 new 5G base stations
A worker is installing a 5G station in Shanghai.
Shanghai will construct an additional 10,000 5G base stations this year, which will help the city keep its top position in 5G base station density nationwide, a local industry regulator said on Tuesday.
The improved 5G network coverage and speed, determined by 5G base station number and density, will help the city boost digital transformation and fuel economic rebound after the pandemic.
By the end of 2023, Shanghai’s 5G base stations will hit 77,000 with the newly increased 10,000 stations this year.
The fiber optic networks, the most advanced and fastest broadband network will cover 2,000 office buildings and all newly-constructed smart factories, said the Shanghai Communications Administration.
The 5G data traffic will account for over 60 percent of the total telecommunications traffic in Shanghai by 2023. The figure is higher than the national level of 40 percent during the Spring Festival, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
The higher adoption rate of 5G traffic will boost rich-data services such as streaming, gaming, virtual reality and e-commerce, key parts of the digital economy, experts said.
According to research firm GlobalData, the total mobile services revenue in China is poised to increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.5 percent from US$144.3 billion in 2022 to US$188.2 billion in 2027, mainly driven by the robust growth in mobile data service.
The individual average monthly mobile data usage in China is expected to hit 34.2GB in 2027, almost triple that of 2022. It comes from the growing consumption of online video and social media content over smartphones, thanks to the widespread availability of 4G services and increase in 5G service availability, said GlobalData.
The 5G industrial applications will also turn more popular in Shanghai.
By 2023, 5G applications will cover over 30 percent of education, medical, culture and tourism industries in Shanghai, and over 35 percent of big-scale industrial firms, according to the local administration.
