China’s three state telecoms on Thursday announced the roll-out of 5g mobile phone services, marking a key step in Beijing’s ambitions to become a technology superpower at a time when it remains locked in trade tensions with Washington.
China mobile’s, China Unicom and China telecom’s said on their websites and online stores that 5g plans, which start from as low as 128 Yuan a month, will be available from Friday, allowing Chinese consumers nationwide to use the ultra-fast mobile internet service.
Beijing had originally said it would launch the ultra-fast mobile Internet service, which promises to support new features such as autonomous driving, early next year. But it accelerated its plans as tensions with the United States, especially over its boycott of telecoms giant Huawei technologies, heated up.
“China will have the largest commercial operating 5g network in the world on Friday, and the scale of its network and the price of its 5g services will have a pivotal impact throughout the supply chain,” Bernstein said in a report this week.
Authorities have said they plan to install over 50,000 5g base stations across 50 Chinese cities in the country by the end of this year, and that big cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Hangzhou, are already covered by the 5g network.
