China Kicks Off 5G Era with Issue of Mobile Licenses

China awarded commercial 5G telecommunications licenses on Thursday, intensifying a global race to deploy the ultra-high-speed wireless technology that will power a new generation of data-intensive services like autonomous driving and tele-medicine.

Just three days after announcing it would issue commercial 5G licenses “soon,” the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) held a formal ceremony to make the awards, according to an announcement on its website (link in Chinese). Recipients included the country’s three major wireless carriers, China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom, as well as the more recently formed China Broadcasting Network Corp.