BEIJING: China Unicom plans to invest 1 billion yuan (US$157 million) in Shanghai this year to upgrade network speed, next-generation voice network and expansion of the Internet of Things, the company said yesterday.
The investment will be used to upgrade the network to VoLTE, improve the speed of 4G network and expand the IOT, said Shanghai Unicom, a subsidiary of China Unicom.
The VoLTE network allows users to make calls and surf online simultaneously on 4G networks which they can’t do now, according to China Unicom. It will be ready by the end of 2015 in Shanghai.
Shanghai Unicom will have 9,500 4G base stations by 2015, more than double the 4,500 stations a year ago. The 4G bandwidth will rise to 300 megabits per second (Mbps) and 450Mbps next year, from 150Mbps now.
Meanwhile, Shanghai Unicom will invest heavily in IOT, which refers to connected smart devices through radio and other technologies, in the Internet Plus strategy.
The faster Internet access and wider bandwidth such as 4G and the future 5G network will better connect smartphones and other devices, boosting IOT development, industry officials said.
The total IOT market in China is estimated at 500 billion yuan (US$78.6 billion) this year, Xinhua news agency said. IOT is forecast to contribute US$1.8 trillion to the national economy in the years through 2030, according to Accenture.
