The city of Beijing signed a deal with Chinese mobile carrier China Unicom to equip three of its key Olympic venues with 5G wireless technology as China is slated to be the third country in the world to stage a 5G-powered Olympic games.
Beijing State-owned Assets Management Co, which operates the National Stadium, the Beijing National Aquatics Center, and the national speed skating hall, signed a 5G deployment deal with China Unicom on Thursday.
These iconic Chinese Olympic venues have well-known nicknames such as the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube.
Thursday was the 11th anniversary of the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.
The two companies will jointly handle work on the building of 5G-powered smart stadiums.
South Korea became the world's first country to host Olympic Games with 5G technology, which was super-fast with ultralow latency, at PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games. Japan is slated to be the second country in the world to host 5G-enabled Olympic Games in 2020.
Wu Xiaonan, vice president of Beijing State-owned Assets Management Co, told the Global Times that 5G is an information highway but at the end of the day it will be the application scenarios that differentiate the Beijing 2022 games.
With 5G infrastructure, the company is now working on developing application scenarios for the eight user groups of the huge sports event.
"For instance, now we are in 4G and you probably have lost your way when you enter a huge, spacious and multilayered building such as the Bird's Nest," Wu told a group of reporters. Many reporters did have difficulty in finding the press room, with their navigation apps failing to give detailed information.
"In the world of 5G, three-dimensional maps and navigation apps will ensure seamless transfer from the outdoor environment to indoor complexes, leading you to your seat within a precision of 1 meter."
China is now in a leading position in the global 5G rollout.
