China Tower: Over 217M tower sites built, 328M 5G base stations as of June 2026

What can a single tower do? At the China Tower exhibition area of the 2026 World Manufacturing Convention, the answer becomes tangible and meaningful: It serves as an “AI sentinel” guarding rivers and lakes 24/7, an “aerial vanguard” that reduces inspection time for power lines from 5 people and 50 minutes to just 2 people and 8 minutes, a “green station” integrating solar, storage, and charging for heavy-duty truck depots, and a “sensing nerve” protecting lifelines in urban underground pipelines.

On September 20, China Tower made its debut at the Hefei Binhu International Convention and Exhibition Center under the theme “Smart Engine for the Future, Connecting Six Networks with Data.” The exhibition area was organized by Anhui Tower. Over three days, more than 5,000 visitors reflected widespread recognition of China Tower’s achievements in shared infrastructure and its role in empowering various industries.

Building a Digital Foundation to Empower All Industries

China Tower has fully leveraged its role as a “national team” and “main force” in digital infrastructure construction and operation, continuously advancing the sharing of telecommunications infrastructure. As of the end of June 2026:

• The total number of tower sites nationwide exceeded 2.17 million.
• A cumulative total of over 6.2 million base stations had been built, including more than 3.28 million 5G base stations.
• The sharing rate of newly built towers rose to 86.2%, with over 95% of 5G base stations realized through shared existing resources.

Through “co-building,” “sharing,” and “co-optimization,” the equivalent of 1.27 million towers were avoided, saving the industry more than 430 billion yuan in investment and operating costs. This has helped China build the world’s largest, highest-quality, and most technologically advanced mobile communication network.

Leveraging its unique advantages—2.17 million tower sites, nearly one million equipment rooms, over 1,100 mid-to-high-altitude AI algorithms, and 24/7 power and security capabilities—China Tower is accelerating the transformation from “communication towers” to “digital towers” and further to “smart towers.” Currently, more than 260,000 communication towers have been upgraded to digital towers, equipped with smart cameras, radar, and sensors.

Empowering Industries and Building an Open Ecosystem

The exhibition showcased China Tower’s capabilities in empowering industries and fostering ecological collaboration:

• Zhonglian Zhihe (Smart Alliance): Bringing together high-quality ecosystem partners and mature solutions to create an open, win-win digital cooperation ecosystem.
• Zhongxiang Zhisuan (Shared Smart Computing): Establishing a shared algorithm marketplace, leveraging massive mid-to-high-altitude samples to provide AI perception and intelligent analysis services across industries.
• Yiwang Tongfei (Unified Drone Network): Coordinating drones, towers, and drone nests to enable routine inspection operations.
• Quanyu Shilian (Panoramic Video Connectivity): Utilizing high-altitude video resources to provide round-the-clock video perception and intelligent early warning services.
• Nengyuan Guanjia (Energy Steward): Integrating photovoltaic, energy storage, and backup power resources from base stations to provide green, low-carbon, safe, and reliable energy management and emergency support services.

Serving the Construction of “Six Networks”

With 2.17 million tower sites as the foundation and the transformation from “communication towers” to “digital towers” as the path, China Tower is advancing the construction of six key networks. Taking Anhui Tower as an example:

Water Network Construction

Anhui Tower relies on 78,000 digital towers, drone nests, and hydrological IoT sensors to enable real-time monitoring and emergency response with zero delay.

New Power Grid Construction

Across 16 cities in Anhui, 536 drone nests have been deployed, over 80% of which share tower infrastructure. These nests support intelligent inspection of transmission lines, reducing a single inspection from 4–5 people and 50 minutes to just 2 people and 8 minutes—an efficiency improvement of approximately 6 times. Additionally, by aggregating backup power, energy storage, and battery swap networks from base stations, 316,000 sites across 7 cities have been integrated to form a “virtual power plant.”

Computing Network Construction

More than 50,000 communication equipment rooms in Anhui can be upgraded into edge computing nodes, featuring triple power supply and 24/7 operation and maintenance support. China Tower’s self-developed heterogeneous network edge computing system solves challenges in managing heterogeneous networks, cross-network coordination, and node scheduling, improving deployment efficiency by 70% and resource utilization by 30%.

Next-Generation Communication Network Construction

Anhui Tower provides 5G private networks and edge computing services for industries such as parks, ports, and electric power.

Urban Underground Pipeline Network Construction

The “Pipeline Smart Protection” system safeguards urban lifelines through three layers:

• Road-level high-point sensing combined with AI algorithms for real-time alerts on illegal construction, fire, and ground subsidence.
• Underground terminal IoT and shared tunnel communication systems.
• Beidou positioning base stations for personnel tracking and emergency dispatch.

Logistics Network Construction

Anhui Tower has built a three-tier logistics node network: hub stations, regional stations, and terminal stations. In Lu’an, a solar-storage-charging integrated heavy-duty truck charging station was completed, equipped with:

• 48 charging guns
• 7,830 kVA installed capacity
• 2.9 MW photovoltaic and 1 MWh energy storage

This serves as a benchmark for green logistics supply.

Advancing the “Dual Carbon” Strategy

The exhibition also highlighted China Tower’s efforts to implement the national “dual carbon” strategy by expanding energy service boundaries and developing green, low-carbon digital infrastructure products.

The warmth of 2.17 million towers lies not in steel, but in the lives they touch.

(Source: People’s Posts and Telecommunications News)