China’s third largest telco, China Unicom, has revealed that it has deployed 130,000 5G base stations in the first phase of its 5G network rollout.

Of the 130,000 base stations currently deployed, 115,000 were jointly deployed with China Telecom.

The company claims that it will have deployed in excess of 300,000 5G base stations by the end of the year, as it looks to build out and densify its next generation mobile networks in China.

So far, China Unicom has launched 5G network services in 50 towns and cities across China.

China is currently in the process of rolling out the world’s largest and most ambitious 5G network. Cumulatively, operators in the country have deployed over 200,000 base stations.

China already has more than 15.4 million subscribers signed up to 5G tariffs. China currently has around 70 per cent of the world’s 5G subscribers, as operators rapidly rollout network availability.

"5G deployment in Europe will probably be delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic, but in China development is accelerating, we could even exceed the original plan by a bit," Huawei's Deputy Chairman Eric Xu told reporters from the Nikkei Asian Review.