China's National Development and Reform Commission has released a guidance document on information infrastructure construction projects for next year, saying that fifth-generation networks be built in at least five cities to form a continuous coverage.

It focuses on municipalities directly under the central government, including provincial capitals and cities in the Pearl River and Yangtze River estuaries and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. The construction and application demonstration projects for a 5G network require the construction of at least 50 5G base stations in each city to provide continuous coverage in dense urban areas. China's 5G technologies are entering the commercial research and development phase within a standardized setting. The country will complete the third phase of 5G testing by the end of next year, including research and development, verification, and upstream and downstream industry product testing before their commercialization.