The first 5G base station for civil use in North China's Tianjin Municipality was put into use in Heping district on Wednesday. Tianjin is accelerating its 5G construction. China Unicom's 5G experience store started operating earlier this year, and now the 5G base station has started civilian use, local media reported. Photo: VCG

Southwest China's Guizhou Province - where Apple's data center for Chinese users is located - plans to invest over 220 billion yuan ($31.1 billion) in strategic infrastructure projects this year, with 20,000 5G bases planned to connect all counties in China.

According to the Guizhou Provincial Development and Reform Commission, the province will invest around 16 billion yuan to build internet infrastructure in 2020, accelerating the construction of 5G networks and optical-fiber cables for communications.

Meanwhile, the province plans to complete the construction of data centers for firms and institutions including Apple's iCloud, Huawei, Tencent and the People's Bank of China.

Since 5G became involved in China's "new infrastructure" in April, under efforts to spur the country's economy due to the COVID-19 fallout, many provinces and cities in China have been ramping up efforts to boost the construction of 5G bases to commercialize the next-generation networks.

Harbin in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province recently released a guideline for the establishment of 5G communications infrastructure. It is planning to construct 7,000 5G bases, covering the city's key regions, and will begin to launch a large-scale commercialization of 5G.

Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality aims to become the country's 5G leader in 2022, rolling out more than 100 5G demonstration applications and nurturing over 100 5G innovation enterprises, local media cqcb.com reported on Friday.