In crowded areas such as Wuyi Square and the high-speed railway station in Changsha, network lag and signal congestion were once common during peak hours. Now, streaming videos, watching livestreams, and playing games run smoothly and stably, with pages rarely showing the "spinning" loader.

China has made national deployment to advance the "Six Networks" initiative, which includes water networks, new-type power grids, computing power networks, next-generation communication networks, urban underground pipeline networks and logistics networks. The next-generation communication networks serve as the digital foundation—a critical link in strengthening urban safety and resilience, facilitating the flow of production factors  between urban and rural areas, and empowering industrial transformation and upgrading. Hunan is seizing the opportunities of digital infrastructure construction, accelerating the development of new-generation communication network upgrades, promoting the iterative upgrade from 5G to 5G-A, extending gigabit optical networks to urban and rural areas, and implementing satellite internet layout.

As of now, the province has nearly 220,000 5G (including 5G-A) base stations, with 5G base stations accounting for over 40% of the total mobile communication base stations, surpassing the national average. Gigabit optical networks have achieved full coverage in all urban areas at county-level and above. By June 2025, all administrative villages have achieved "dual gigabit" network coverage with both 5G and gigabit optical networks. The network service is now being further extended to natural villages, bridging the "last mile" of the digital network.

Residents' Internet Speed Boosts and Urban and Rural Digital Life Becomes Smoother

Since the beginning of this year, Hunan's information and communication industry has continued to promote the "upgrading of communication network construction and application," enhancing the scale and level of network coverage.

For high-traffic areas such as urban core business districts, transportation hubs, and large venues, the 5G-A network significantly enhances bandwidth capacity through multi-carrier aggregation. China Mobile Group Hunan Company Limited (Hunan Mobile) has taken the lead in achieving 3CC (competent carrier) continuous coverage within Changsha's second ring road, with terminal phones displaying the "5G-A" logo and measured average download speeds exceeding 850Mbps.

What does this mean for ordinary users?

Downloading a movie takes about 30 seconds with traditional 5G network but only 3 seconds with 5G-A; at concerts, scenic spots, or large events, you can instantly share high-definition videos on your social media platforms even when surrounded by crowds; when playing mobile games, latency is reduced to milliseconds, allowing for precise, responsive controls.

In 2026, the province plans to add 20,000 new 5G base stations, focusing on enhancing the depth of mobile network coverage in locations such as government service centers, hospitals, and scenic spots, while addressing network weaknesses in scenarios like administrative villages, roads, and forest areas. In remote villages in western Hunan, villagers can smoothly engage in live-streaming sales and enjoy digital services, with high-speed networks continuously narrowing the urban-rural digital divide and bringing quality digital benefits to all people across the province.

Smart Applications Deployed with More Efficient Industrial Digital and Intelligent Transformation

In the past, crane operators at Xiangtan Iron & Steel Group had to climb to heights daily, exposing themselves to risks such as dust and noise pollution. Now, they can sit in a comfortable, clean control room and operate the crane in front of screens.

The Xiangtan Iron & Steel Group, in collaboration with Hunan Mobile, has built a globally leading large-scale 5G industrial private network, implementing 15 benchmark applications including 5G+ unmanned cranes and 5G+ scrap steel Class A grading. After the project was put into operation, operating costs dropped by 20% and production efficiency increased by 20%.

Leveraging the new-generation high-speed communication foundation, Hunan is promoting the deep integration of technologies such as 5G-A, the Internet of Things, and integrated sensing and communication with the real economy. Efforts have been made to accelerate the transformation of production models from "human-driven" to "data-driven," advancing the digital and intelligent transformation of traditional industries, and solidifying the digital foundation for urban operations and production safety.

Most ultra-high voltage transmission lines are located in remote mountains, where signal was previously unavailable, making it impossible to transmit monitoring data. By leveraging a 5G private network, the State Grid Hunan Electric Power Company Limited has achieved real-time data transmission through visual monitoring and automated drone inspections, transforming line status monitoring from "periodic checks" to intelligent early warning round the clock, significantly reducing safety risks in manual line patrols.

The Zhuzhou Times New Material Technology Co., Ltd has built a 5G smart factory operation management platform, achieving a 100% equipment networking rate and a 70% increase in the timely handling rate of network outages. Changsha County has implemented a multi-source integrated low-altitude surveillance network project, utilizing 5G-A integrated sensing and communication technology to address challenges such as poor low-altitude communication and difficulty in target identification, reducing low-altitude supervision costs by approximately 40% and strongly driving the development of new business forms like drone logistics and smart inspections.

Data shows that since the beginning of this year, Hunan has added 131 new 5G industry virtual private networks, bringing the total to 1,997, with the cumulative number of mobile IoT terminal connections exceeding 100 million. High-speed communication networks are empowering sectors such as manufacturing, electric power, transportation, and the low-altitude economy, continuously delivering benefits in cost reduction, quality improvement, and efficiency enhancement.

This article is from the Hunan Provincial Government www.enghunan.gov.cn.

Translator: Xiao Juan

Chinese source: hunan.gov.cn