Some of Shanghai's public telephone booths have recently been retrofitted with small 5G base stations to begin providing 5G Internet access to users.
At a 5G public phone booth near the Shanghai Grand Theater, users tested with 5G phones and found that the 5G network around the booth had a downlink rate of about 900 megabits per second (Mbps) and an uplink rate of about 100 Mbps, with data transfer rates much higher than 4G networks.
Compared to 3G and 4G networks, 5G networks need to deploy a greater number of base stations to achieve good coverage, according to Zhang Jun, director of Shanghai Telecom's Mobile Internet Department's Mobile Construction Center.
The installation of 5G micro-base stations on existing public telephone booths is conducive to the use of stock resources to compensate for the coverage blind spots of 5G outdoor macro stations.
To date, there are more than 5,000 unattended public telephone booths in Shanghai, mainly located at road nodes, public places, business districts and around public service facilities.
More than 10 public phone booths in downtown Shanghai have been connected to the 5G network. It is expected that by the end of this year, Shanghai Telecom will have completed the 5G upgrade of more than 100 public phone booths.
In 2020, Shanghai will build a total of 20,000 5G base stations to promote full coverage of 5G networks in the city.
However, not all public phone booths in Shanghai will be upgraded to "5G phone booths". The specific location will be determined by the 5G coverage in each region, and phone booths located in areas with heavy pedestrian traffic will be upgraded first.
