Where Is 5G Available in China? (2024)

Many areas of China have 5G access. The country already leads the world in the mobile market sector, so it makes sense that it'll reach the top in terms of 5G users.

In other words, 5G in China will be a much bigger thing than 5G... well, anywhere.

Currently, there are a few primary next-gen players that are bringing about this ultrafast new wireless technology. It's only a matter of time before you can take advantage of all that 5G will offer in your area.

Benefits of 5G Over 4G

If you’re not familiar, this is the next generation of wireless technology. When comparing 5G to 4G, we see way faster speeds and much lower delays, which for you, means accessing data more quickly and having a smoother experience when watching movies, playing games, browsing the web, etc.

China 5G Rollout

Three wireless carriers launched their new networks on October 31, 2019: China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom. A few others have a network up and running now as well.

China Mobile 5G

As the world’s biggest mobile phone operator, there’s no doubt China Mobile is on track to deliver its customers a new, faster network. As of late 2022, China Mobile has over 600 million 5G customers.

The 5G plan from China Mobile is available for less than USD 20 and gets you 30 GB of data at max speeds of 300 Mbps.

These guys aren't new to the 5G space. They researched 5G with Ericsson in 2015, set up a 5G base station in 2017 in Guangdong, and launched another trial network in Beijing just a month later. They even have a 5G network in the Hongqiao railway station.

China Unicom 5G

China Unicom is one of the world’s largest mobile service providers. With such a large subscriber base, it makes sense that it's one of the front-runners of 5G in China.

Before China Unicom's 5G launch, they had a fifth-gen network set up in very few locations since most if not all of them were test projects, except for a few like the base stations in Tiananmen Square that were launched in 2019.

Some cities with 5G access include Beijing, Tianjin, Qingdao, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Wuhan, Guiyang, Chengdu, Fuzhou, Zhengzhou, and Shenyang. The plan is that each of these locations will build 100 5G base stations.

3 Hong Kong 5G

3 Hong Kong launched their 5G services on April 1, 2020. Both indoor and outdoor coverage has presumably been implemented in all districts in Hong Kong. Check out their 5G Monthly Plans page the details.

The company announced in late 2018, that they completed their first outdoor 5G trial in the 3.5 GHz and 28 GHz spectrum bands. This was performed at a 5G cell site in Causeway Bay, and produced speeds over 2 Gbps.

In late 2019, 3 Hong Kong made a successful bid for spectrum in the 3.5 GHz band to be used for 5G deployment.

China Telecom 5G

China Telecom launched 5G in a subway station in Chengdu called Taipingyang Station. There's also coverage in airports and other areas of Hubei.

SmarTone 5G

SmarTone and Ericsson reached a deal in 2020 to allow the two to deploy a 5G network in Hong Kong. Later in 2020, 5G officially launched in some shopping malls, hotels, office buildings, and other locations; check out the coverage map for details.

Other Chinese 5G Networks

China’s 34-mile-long Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao bridge got 5G in 2020 via the bridge's network operator, ZTE Corp.

6G in China

Not long after 5G came to China was it clear that 6G would start being worked on. Research institutes, universities, and government departments are already researching 6G before most of the world has had a taste for 5G.

China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which first started their 6G research in 2018, claims that a commercial version of the sixth generation of wireless technology will be released by 2030.