A staff member tests the speed with a Huawei 5G mobile phone at Huawei 5G Innovation and Experience Center in London, Britain, on Jan. 28. Photo: Xinhua/Han Yan

China's total number of deployed 5G basic stations will reach 600,000 at the end of 2020, an expert said on Sunday, and the rollout is unlikely to be hindered by the coronavirus outbreak.

As a result, major network operators have started putting purchase of 5G mobile equipment out to tender to prepare for large-scale rollout in the coming months.

Fu Liang, a Beijing-based industry analyst, told the Global Times that judging by the current speed of 5G base stations deployment, the rollout of 5G was not hindered by the coronavirus. 

China Mobile, one of the major telecommunications operators, has constructed a total of 300,000 base stations. China Telecom and China Unicom plan to build around 250,000 base stations together in 2020. 

"Hundreds of thousands of base stations are built every year in China, and workers are being intensively trained," Fu said. "As long as the supply chain is not seriously disrupted and the workers can return to their posts on time, the annual schedule for China's 5G equipment deployment is not likely to be affected."

However, Fu also noted that the spread of the coronavirus in Japan and South Korea, which are key suppliers of chipsets to China's major manufacturers, might put some pressure on the supply chain, but so far there is no risk of a severe disruption. 

"In general, although there will be a large number of base stations to be built this year, the application of 5G is still at the early stage, and the demand for 5G terminal devices is yet to peak," Fu said.

Thus, the outbreaks in Japan and South Korea are not likely to weigh on 5G deployment in China, even if it means a dip in supplies in the short term, he said.

Despite the effect of the epidemic, 5G users in China are steadily growing. According to the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, in January, about 5.5 million out of the total 20 million new smartphones shipments were 5G devices.