SHANGHAI — A 5G network in Shanghai’s Hongkou district, backed by Chinese telecom giant China Mobile, started trial runs on March 30.

Wu Qing, Shanghai’s vice-mayor, made the network’s first video call using a Huawei Mate X, a foldable 5G smartphone, at the launch ceremony.

A total of 228 5G base stations have been deployed in Hongkou, making it the first district in Shanghai fully covered by a 5G network and a gigabit broadband network.

Zhang Jianming, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization, said the city aims to build over 10,000 5G base stations by the end of the year, and the number is expected to exceed 30,000 by 2021.

Zhang added that the 5G network would provide solutions to industrial manufacturing, internet-connected cars, healthcare and city management.

Shanghai’s latest move adds to a recent trend of Chinese cities adopting the 5G network to meet public demands.

In late January, an airport in South China’s Guangdong province launched a 5G base station. An indoor 5G network will be installed in the Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station by the end of this year.

Test data showed that 5G network is able to provide a peak single-user download speed of 1.6 Gbps, nearly 16 times faster than that of 4G service.