A new round of applications based on 5G technology has been launched on a trial basis in Putuo District with the aim of improving its residents' convenience, enjoyment and safety. The 25 applications cover 11 fields such as shopping, traffic, garbage sorting and medical services. Over 700 5G base stations have been installed to cover most part of the district, Li Wenbo, director of Putuo’s science and technology commission, told a 5G promotion meeting on Monday. Test data showed the 5G network is able to provide a peak single-user download speed of 1.6 Gbps, nearly 16 times faster than 4G. Aside from speed, the low latency of 5G network is especially helpful for the Internet of Things applications. At the Global Harbor Mall, a major site for Putuo to promote 5G, unmanned cleaning vehicles are sweeping the floors and collecting garbage across the city's largest shopping complex. Artificial intelligence has replaced staffed customer services. A "facial emotion recognition system" can analyze customers' preferences so sale staff can offer tailored services. Robots patrol the mall to ensure safety, as well as guide drivers to find their cars in parking garages. "These 5G applications can not only offer better experiences to customers, but also better services to shop operators," said Ding Zuohong, president of the mall owner Yuexing Group. In Putuo communities, surveillance cameras can be controlled and adjusted based on China Mobile's 5G networks to cover every spot in neighborhoods and eliminate safety risks. The city's first garbage room equipped with 5G technology has been launched in Caoyang Community, China's first worker's community built in the 1950s. The garbage house can weigh the waste, collect and transmit data as well as monitor dumping automatically. An education theme park featuring virtual reality and augmented reality experiences has opened in Putuo's Shiquan community. The superfast communication technology has also been applied to transmit medical images and conduct remote consultation at Putuo hospitals. The district aims to become Shanghai's first "high-quality 5G district" this year with additional innovative applications and 5G coverage, said Li. It plans to build another 500 outdoor base stations in 50 key office buildings and five major innovation parks, he added. The district government signed an agreement with China's three major communications carriers, China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom as well as China Tower Shanghai, the major infrastructure constructor, to further promote the 5G technology. To create more applications, the major innovation parks of Putuo, including the national-level China-Israel Innovation Hub (Shanghai) and the International Innovation Center of Tsinghua University Shanghai, will also focus on the 5G industry and attract leading and startup firms in the new communication technology. Shanghai had over 13,000 5G base stations, 10 percent of the national total, as of November, and 5G signals will cover the entire city in 2020. Some 126,000 5G base stations have been established across the country. All the nation’s prefecture-level cities are expected to be covered by a 5G network by the end of the year.