Another University Headed to Xiongan New Area, This Time to Build 5G Center

Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunication will establish a 5G telecom network research center in Xiongan New Area, an economic powerhouse planned near Beijing.

Wu Jianwei, secretary of the university’s Communist Party Committee, told Beijing Business Today on Sunday that the university will contribute to Xiongan New Area by setting up an internet technology research center that will focus on research of the 5G telecom network, a new generation of mobile phone services.

The plan came shortly after the country’s top three telecom giants — China Mobile Ltd., China Unicom and China Telecom Corp. Ltd. — disclosed their plans to try their new generation of mobile internet service in Xiongan, which will be about 100 km south of China’s capital city.

The central government announced on April 1 it will create Xiongan to share some of Beijing’s non-capital functions and better coordinate the regional development of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province. President Xi Jinping also stressed that Xiongan will be built into a green, modern and smart city whose public services will become new models for urban planning.

Analysts said Xiongan is expected to become a front-line city for the country’s top information technology infrastructure.

Although a detailed plan has not been publicized yet, China Mobile said it will start 5G trials in 2018, with a target to commercialize the technology by 2020.

Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunication is not the first higher-education institution to announce its plan in Xiongan. Prestigious Peking University, for example, said it will build a medical research center in Xiongan, and another center to train business management personnel for companies. Beijing Normal University has also sent a delegation to Xiongan to discuss future cooperation.

Contact reporter Wu Gang (gangwu@caixin.com)