Being the only official communication service partner for the 2022 Winter Olympics happening in Beijing, China, telecom giant China Unicom unveiled that it will be investing over $217 million (1.5 billion RMB) for its 4G service upgrade, and it is planning to create a 5G-based broadband network map offering high-speed connectivity and low latency.
In addition, having a smart platform will allow tv audiences across the world to have access to a panorama live broadcast and immersive Virtual Reality (VR) experiences. As for athletes, they will get help from Artificial Intelligence for record-checking or physical checkup during their daily training.
2022 Winter Olympics Games is a great opportunity for China Unicom to prove itself it can accelerate the deployment of 5G applications.
In order to avoid disturbance between 5G stations and other satellite ground stations, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released new papers regarding this issue just ten days after granting permission to China's three mobile phone carriers for using 5G frequency to conduct technical tests. Moreover, numerous supporting policies have also been adopted to speed up the 5G deployment.
China Mobile, with more than 100 5G base stations, conducted 5G business and application pilot programs in 12 cities this year and performed 5G tests in seven regions this year, of which Beijing, Shanghai and Xiongan New Area to name a few. It has built a platform in Chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan Province, for residents to experience Augmented Reality (AR) and VR business via 5G.
The pre-commercialization phase of 5G networks in China will start in 2019 and will be officially ready in 2020. However, some analysts have predicted that large-scale deployment of 5G networks may take longer.
