(Yicai Global) June 29 -- China United Network Communications, one of the country's three major telecom firms, has followed the two other players' suit by saying that it will build a standalone fifth-generation wireless network.

China Unicom will set up labs with tech industry experts including Tencent, Baidu and the Chinese Academy of Sciences to build a 5G network via SA, the Beijing-based telecom firm said at the 2018 Shanghai Mobile World Congress.

The 5G network will speed up the internet with implications to how effectively data can be collected, stored and processed. This is why the first maker of such upgrade in the core network infrastructure will have a competitive advantage in terms of future tech innovation, such as unmanned traffic management.

China Unicom is expected to carry out a large-scale pilot and commercial trials of 5G services next year and roll out the finished product by 2020, the firm said.

The lab with Tencent will focus on research in the fields of core network building, edge computing, network slicing and high-accuracy positioning. Baidu's equivalent will specialize in the fields of vehicle networking, artificial intelligence, and big data. The CAS will study 5G's core technologies and their applications.

The 2018 Shanghai Mobile World Congress is held on June 27–29.

Editor: Emmi Laine