PRESS RELEASE: On February 22, 2023, Shenzhen Pioneer City, as part of the “U-Joy Cities” program, was launched with the aim to promote Shenzhen to become a model city of digital economy development. Representatives of the Industry and Information Technology Bureau of Shenzhen Municipality, China Unicom Guangdong, Huawei, and leading industry partners attended the event and called for deployment of super broadband networks and acceleration of 5.5G application scenarios exploration.

Shenzhen is the pioneer of China’s reform and opening up, a special economic zone and national economic hub in China. According to the “Pioneer City” action plan released recently by the Industry and Information Technology Bureau of Shenzhen Municipality, Shenzhen will build a dual-gigabit and all-optical super broadband network with full coverage across the city by the end of 2023, to make Shenzhen a 5G pioneer city that tops China and leads the world in terms of network access, computing power, user experience, and applications. At present, Shenzhen is making every effort to consolidate its all-optical foundation, improve the computing power, and facilitate the interconnection of massive IoT devices, providing strong support for the high-quality development of the local networks and communications industry clusters. There are over 65,000 5G base stations in Shenzhen, and another 10,000 will be built this year to comprehensively improve the city’s 5G network coverage and user experience.

Facing the opportunities offered in the new era of 5.5G, China Unicom Guangdong will roll out a 5.5G Park in Shenzhen. In order to better prepare for future industry transformation brought about by innovative applications such as super-large intelligent models, digital humans and metaverse, China Unicom Guangdong and Huawei will collaborate with industry partners to carry out research on frontier 5.5G topics, such as ultra-large capacity for urban hotspots, autonomous driving, harmonized communication and sensing, RedCap and passive IoT, as well as E2E test and verification and application development in 5.5G Park. China Unicom Guangdong also plans to make Shenzhen 5.5G Park as a innovation engine for U-Joy Cities in Guangdong. This will not only directly drive Shenzhen’s digital economy development, but also support the scenario-based innovation in other cities of Guangdong and the Greater Bay Area, continuously promoting high-level resource sharing and equalization of basic public services.

The “Pioneer City” action plan of Shenzhen is consistent with China Unicom Guangdong’s “U-Joy Cities” innovation program — both seek to improve 5G network capabilities through continuous technology and application innovation, thereby promoting Shenzhen’s digital economy development, and providing more benefits to the citizens and enterprises in Shenzhen. China Unicom Guangdong and Huawei have been working closely to help Shenzhen build a national benchmark of “Dual-Gigabit City” through network innovation. In 2022, China Unicom Guangdong and Huawei completed the commercial deployment of over 5,500 5G sites and the construction of more than 40,000 XGPON ports. Meanwhile, the two parties have commercialized leading 5G technologies at scale, such as “M-MIMO + Dual Carriers” and Distributed M-MIMO, in industrial parks and residential areas, as well as Shenzhen North Railway Station, a high-speed railway hub, with 5G user experience improved by nearly 50% and average daily 5G traffic increased by more than 15%. China Unicom Guangdong and Huawei also completed China’s first RedCap technology verification for digital grids together with China Southern Power Grid, to facilitate the wide application of 5G technologies in industries with lower-cost modules.

In May 2022, China Unicom Guangdong and Huawei jointly launched the “5G U-Joy Cities” network innovation program. After that, China Unicom Guangdong and Huawei, together with leading industry partners, have implemented the “Foshan Manufacturing City”, “Yangjiang Marine City” and “Guangzhou Gigabit City”. In the future, China Unicom Guangdong and Huawei will continue to explore new 5.5G application scenarios and develop pioneering experience that could benefit Guangdong’s economic, social and livelihood development.