The first batch of 5G base stations in Northeast China’s Heilongjiang provinces recently finished construction, according to information released by the Heilongjiang Communications Administration on Jan 22.

Jointly built by the Heilongjiang branch of China Mobile and Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd, the two base stations are located in Songbei and Daoli districts of Harbin, capital city of Heilongjiang.

The base stations are mainly used to test application of 5G technologies in cold northeastern regions, and they are expected to be officially put into use next year.

Tests at the trial base stations showed that the real-time rate of the 5G network reached up to 2.5 Gigabytes (GBps) per second.

Theoretically, the peak rate of a 5G network can reach 10 GBps, 100 times the peak rate of a 4G network, signifying that a high-definition movie could be downloaded within a second under the network, said a staff member of Heilongjiang Communications Administration.

A 5G network features large broadband, high speed and low latency. It will provide strong technology support in the fields of smart medical services, digital entertainment, smart manufacturing, virtual reality, and the internet of things, helping to reduce costs and bring more convenience for people.

Heilongjiang is eyeing the 5G network's full commercialization in 2020.