China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom say they have completed the expansion of their wireless communication capabilities to allow 300,000 people, the estimated daily maximum, to access the internet at speeds of up to 170 megabits per second using mobile gadgets at the upcoming China International Import Expo.
The event, to be held from Nov 5 to 10 at the National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai, will serve as a trial run for the superfast 5G network that is expected to be rolled out in the near future.
“The installation of an enhanced network needed to be finished within three months, which was quite an urgent task given that it would normally take three years to complete a project of this magnitude,” says Weng Zhenxiang, who works in the engineering department of China Mobile’s Shanghai branch.
Visitors to large events such as the CIIE often face issues with call connectivity and slow data speeds due to a high concentration of call volume and data usage. To tackle this problem, China Mobile has installed 3,000 signal boosters at the expo site’s 34 exhibition halls and surrounding areas to bolster network coverage, according to Weng.
Meanwhile, China Unicom has set up five 5G base stations in selected exhibition halls and areas to showcase the capabilities of the next-generation network, which is many times faster than current speeds.
According to a news release from China Unicom’s Shanghai branch, the company will facilitate the broadcast of CIIE-related events in newsrooms using the 5G network. It said the internet connection in the venue has been upgraded to the IPv6 protocol, which supports more addresses than its IPv4 predecessor and thus allows more devices to be connected to the internet.
Shanghai is sprinting ahead to adopt some of the world’s internet best practices. The city has announced that it has completed a gigabit broadband network. This means that customers of China Telcom, the carrier behind this 1 billion yuan ($144 million; 126 million euros; ￡112 million) network, can enjoy faster broadband speeds of up to 10 gigabits per second while at home.
“Becoming the first gigabit city demonstrates Shanghai’s bid to turn China into a cyberpower,” says Ma Yimin, general manager of China Telecom’s Shanghai branch.
“Life in Shanghai has become easier thanks to higher internet speeds, smarter infrastructure and better accessibility to the world through technologies.”
(China Daily European Weekly 11/02/2018 page8)