Jiangsu opens 71,000 5G base stations, second highest in China

2021-02-02 16:17:00

East China’s Jiangsu Province had opened 71,000 5G base stations, second highest in the country, by the end of 2020.

The province’s 13 bigger cities have all completed spatial planning for 5G development. Jiangsu was also one of the earliest to resume 5G construction after the COVID-19 disruption.

The Jiangsu branch of China Tower, a comprehensive telecommunications tower infrastructure service provider, built 47,800 5G base stations last year, 97% of which were on repurposed sites.

As the 5G network expanded, the number of users also increased. Data from the Jiangsu Provincial Communications Administration on January 26 showed that the number of 5G terminals reached 18.48 million in the province, an increase of 800,000 over December 31 last year.

Photo taken on Nov. 5, 2020 shows a smart harvest machine based on 5G technology working at a farm in Nantong. CFP

In the past two years, Jiangsu has introduced many measures to accelerate 5G development and piloted exemplary practices. 5G has been extensively used mainly in IoT, interconnected vehicles, industrial Internet and Smart City initiatives. Progress has also been achieved in applying 5G in fields key to people’s livelihood, such as healthcare, education, finance, culture and sports, and tourism.

In October last year, the first 5G driverless minibus to run on open roads in China made its debut at Suzhou High-speed Rail New Town (HSR), transporting over 3,000 passengers in three months. The Jiangsu branch of China Mobile has also developed the online diagnosis platform for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases and the chronic diseases management, which has been put into use in Nanjing Gulou Hospital and Jiangsu Provincial People's Hospital. The system has helped to identify and treat more than 200 cases of acute chest pain and heart attack patients. It will be further expanded to 45 primary medical institutions in 8 cities that are within one hour’s drive to Nanjing and will benefit over 63,000 patients with chronic diseases.