Chinese mobile operators added 235,000 5G base stations in the first five months of 2025, taking their combined total to nearly 4.5 million, data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology showed.

The total 5G deployments accounted for 35.3 per cent of all base stations in the country.

Operators ended 2024 with more than 6 million LTE base stations.

China Mobile, the world’s largest mobile player by subscribers, plans to add 340,000 5G base stations this year, increasing its count to 2.8 million.

The country closed March with nearly 1.1 billion 5G network subscribers, with China Mobile alone adding 90 million year-on-year in Q1 for a total of 578 million.

The global 5G base station count is estimated at about 10 million.

India had about 470,000 5G base stations at end-February, the Ministry of Communications reported. The country’s 5G subscribers totalled 290 million at end-2024.

Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel started rolling out 5G services in October 2022.

Chinese operators launched 5G services in late 2019.