Chinese telcos to begin testing 5G across 16 major cities

According to TechNode, citing local media, Chinese regulatory authorities have begun to allow local telecommunications companies to begin testing 5G networks in 16 of the country’s major cities.

Off the back of this go ahead, it has been revealed that China Unicom will begin testing in all 16 cities, whilst China Mobile and China Telecom will test their own networks in 12 and six cities respectively.

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The 16 cities, as cited by TechNode, are as follows: Beijing, Tianjin, Qingdao, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Wuhan, Guiyang, Chengdu, Shenzhen, Fuzhou, Zhengzhou, and Shenyang.

A recent report from CCS Insight reveals that China is expected to lead the way alongside the US in the deployment of 5G, forecasting that there will be 100mn 5G connections across China by 2021, with over 1bn connections in the country expected by 2025.

The news comes in the same month as an announcement from China Unicom that the company would begin to close off its existing 2G network ahead of its upcoming planned deployment of 5G – something that these tests are expected to accelerate.