China Mobile's 5G tech soars to new heights

To make full use of the 5G technologies, China Mobile created a livestreaming video showing a 360-degree view of Qomolangma on the company's video platform Migu Video.

Ma Bin, a software engineer in Beijing, said he appreciated the livestreaming videos as Qomolangma is somewhere he would love to visit, but he has been unable to do so.

"Now I can observe its beauty with the 5G livestreaming broadcast on my phone, it is really incredible," Ma said.

The Qomolangma project is also part of China Mobile's broader push to accelerate 5G rollout across China. The nation's biggest telecom carrier by mobile subscribers is pouring in resources to build 300,000 5G base stations this year.

China Mobile said it will invest 100 billion yuan ($14.2 billion) on 5G in 2020. The investment comes as China is ratcheting up efforts to accelerate commercialization of superfast 5G technology as it has built 198,000 5G stations and secured more than 50 million 5G mobile subscribers nationwide as of the end of March, said the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Wen Ku, head of information and communication development department at the ministry, said that as of April 20, a total of 95 types of 5G mobile phones had been licensed, and 5G handsets priced at less than 2,000 yuan have already entered the market.

The ministry said it will support smartphone manufacturers to strengthen research, development and innovation in a bid to provide consumers with various types of cost-effective 5G mobile phones and bolster the consumption of 5G phones through optimizing 5G package services and lowering data plan fees.

More effort is also needed to propel the application of 5G to a wider range of fields, which include virtual reality, augmented reality, livestreamed events, games and entertainment.

Wang Zhiqin, deputy head of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, a government think tank, said China is entering a critical period of 5G network construction.

Speeding up construction of the 5G network will play a vital role in optimizing the investment structure and stabilizing the growth rate when facing fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and economic downward pressure this year, Wang said.

The academy said China is likely to spend 1.2 trillion yuan on 5G network construction and drive more than 3.5 trillion yuan of investment in the upstream and downstream industrial chain and other related sectors by 2025.

Li from China Mobile said the cost of building one 5G base station on Mount Qomolangma exceeds 2 million yuan. The company has already built five 5G base stations to cover the northern face of the mountain.

At an altitude of 7,790 meters, a mountaineering team has helped test 5G, whose download speeds could reach 826 megabits per second and uploading speeds hit 70 Mbps.

A Chinese team is currently scaling to the peak of Mount Qomolangma to remeasure its height. Li and his colleagues are also eager to wait and see how fast 5G can be at the summit.

"It is a once-in-a-lifetime honor for me to be part of this gigantic project. We will cherish the memories forever," Li said.