2021 Chongqing Working Conference on Information and Communication Technology Industry was held on March 19. It stated that this year, the information and communication technology (ICT) industry would be led by 5G development to empower other sectors. One of the city's goals is to build 21,000 5G base stations in 2021.

An aerial photo taken on April 15, 2020, shows people working at the construction site of a 5G base station in Chongqing, southwest China. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao)

The 13th Five-Year Plan period celebrated Chongqing's new progress in the high-quality development of the ICT industry, with its total telecommunications business increasing by 77% annually. In 2020, the revenue generated by the business totaled 319.04 billion yuan (about 49 billion U.S. dollars), a year-on-year rise of 22.6%; mobile Internet traffic reached 3.84 billion gigabytes, a 30-fold increase over the past five years; the number of 5G base stations amounted to 49,000, marking Chongqing's nationwide-leading capability in 5G development.

The broadband access rate, optical fiber access rate, and 4G network coverage rate of Chongqing administrative villages have reached 100%. The successive opening of the directly connected node (Chongqing) in national-level Internet backbone, national-level top node (Chongqing) of industrial internet identifier resolution, and China-Singapore (Chongqing) Dedicated Channel on International Internet Data greatly boosted the city's economic and social development.

Chongqing's major goal in the ICT industry is to achieve 380 billion yuan in the telecommunications business, up by 20% from the previous year. In response to that, the city is about to take 5G development as the pull to advance the ICT industry and empower other industries. For instance, it will build 21,000 new 5G base stations, enable mobile data roaming between different telecom operators, improve 5G service quality, and stimulate the application of 5G in government affairs, healthcare, public security, transportation, and education. Meanwhile, Chongqing will grow into a center of ICT development, creating a "gigabit city," upgrading its capability to allow IPv6 end-to-end connectivity and carrying out the "5G + Industrial Internet" 512 Project.