The Luohu district government held its biweekly news conference on Aug. 14 introducing local development in 5G telecommunications technology and infrastructure over the past year.

As of July 10, Luohu has built 3,235 5G base stations, 45 days in advance of the deadline set for it by the Shenzhen municipal authority, making it the first district in the city, and even the country, to finish construction of the 5G network.

Shi Xingzhong, chief of the Luohu science and technology innovation bureau, speaks at the news conference.

"It takes at least two years to build that many base stations, according to the normal construction speed; it took less than one year in Luohu," said Shi Xingzhong, chief of the Luohu science and technology innovation bureau.

Grassroots authorities, like the residential communities and sub-district offices, have played important roles in seeking residents' approval of building 5G base stations in their neighborhoods, Shi said.

Also, the government has provided 412 public properties for the construction of the base stations, and it has optimized the approval procedure to accelerate the construction.

Zhao Fuyun, general manager of China Telecom's Luohu branch, said: "We realized full coverage of 5G net in Luohu in July."

The company signed a strategic cooperation agreement on the construction of the 5G network and its application with the Luohu district government in April 2019.

The Luohu district government holds its biweekly news conference on Aug. 14 introducing local development in 5G telecommunications technology and infrastructure over the past year.

Thanks to the development, Luohu police now has 8K-level high-definition video transmission for its monitoring system and introduced unmanned aerial vehicles and police robots to conduct day-to-day patrol and emergency rescue.

Shi said that Luohu will make full use of its 5G strengths to not only expedite its construction of a smart city but also develop relevant industries and business models so as to make 5G a driver of good governance and robust economic growth.

For instance, 5G will be widely used in the upgrading project of the Dongmen Pedestrian Street to facilitate the latest generation of telecom technology's merging with business, logistics and people's lives.

Shi said that Luohu will further expand 5G's application, combined with artificial intelligence, in traffic management, residential community, governance service, hospital, school, property service and security in its smart city construction.

For example, the wide application of internet-of-things in the city's traffic system means traffic lights can change their signals according to the traffic flow to make the best use of the road network with optimal solutions against traffic jams.

Zhang Aijun, deputy chief engineer of the Shenzhen Road and Bridge Construction Group, said the management and maintenance of the traffic infrastructure facilities will become easier as 5G can help achieve breakthroughs such as unmanned aerial vehicles being widely used to replace people to patrol roads and bridges.