(Yicai Global) March 12 -- China Unicom and China Telecom, which agreed to build a fifth-generation network together last September, said two days ago that they will jointly procure equipment for at least 250,000 5G base stations, online media The Paper reported today.

The two Chinese telecoms giants plan to complete the construction of stations with the equipment by the third quarter of this year, the report said.

They reported their progress on 5G construction to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on March 6, saying they will finish construction of 250,000 5G base stations by the end of September and try to increase the number to 300,000 by the year's end.

The other state telecom giant, China Mobile, did not disclose its full-year construction target at the meeting, just saying that it had built and started operating more than 80,000 5G base stations by the end of February.

China Mobile launched bulk-buying for equipment that can assemble more than 230,000 5G base stations in the second-phase project on March 6. The total number of base stations in the carrier's first phase that started last June and second phase, which is still at the procurement stage, will be 310,000. That is in line with China Mobile's previous indication that it will assemble 300,000 base stations by the end of the year.

China Unicom President Wang Xiaochu revealed that as of March 5, about 66,000 5G base stations were available for service, of which the company had built 43,000, with the remaining co-built with China Telecom. Some 50,000 were shared between the two, saving them about CNY10 billion (USD1.3 billion) based on a preliminary calculation, he added.

Regarding coordinated 5G development, China Telecom President Ke Ruiwen said his company is determined not to fight a price war, and hopes that the whole industry will promote joint construction and sharing, and together safeguard the industry.

Shares of China Unicom [SHA:600050] closed 1.76 percent lower today at CNY5.57 (USD0.80), while the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index fell 1.52 percent. China Telecom [HKG:0728] slid almost 5.9 percent to HKD2.56 (USD0.30). The Hang Seng Index dropped 3.66 percent.

Editor: Peter Thomas