Unicom to roll out 900MHz 5G to 170,000 base stations by year-end

Chinese full-service provider China Unicom is planning to deploy 900MHz 5G on 170,000 base stations in rural areas by the end of the year, CCTime writes, citing China Unicom Deputy General Manager He Biao. As previously reported by CommsUpdate, earlier this month sector regulator the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) approved plans for Unicom to refarm its 900MHz spectrum for 5G services. Due to the propagation characteristics of the sub-1GHz band, the switch is expected to give Unicom’s 5G coverage a considerable boost and reduce the cost of its network rollout. The operator also noted that the wider coverage area provided by the 900MHz band is of particular importance for the expansion of services in rural and remote locations.