5G smartphone upgrades encouraged among consumers

China will encourage consumers to upgrade their smartphones into 5G-enabled devices, and motivate companies to create more high-quality 5G content, as part of a broader push to boost consumption, the nation's top industry regulator said on Tuesday.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said in its latest notice that it will encourage telecom carriers to give consumers more incentives for buying 5G-enabled devices.

More efforts also will be made to encourage 5G-powered information consumption, such as virtual shopping, 360-degree live streaming of sports events and new types of games, the ministry said.

The regulator also asked telecom carriers to accelerate 5G rollout in major cities and to expand the new generation network to key counties and towns that have relatively sound information infrastructure.

The ministry also encouraged local governments to help map sites for 5G base stations, so that telecom carriers can quickly and efficiently find enough places to build the key telecom infrastructure.