URUMQI -- Urumqi, capital of Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, has seen 5G signals covering the main urban area of the city with more 5G base stations built this year.

By the end of June, Urumqi had built a total of 2,379 5G base stations, of which 1,861 were completed this year. Major public venues such as key commercial districts are all covered with the 5G network.

"The construction of 5G base stations has been affected this year due to the COVID-19 epidemic, but the progress has been speeding up and our branch has put into use 902 5G base stations in 38 days," said Bai Tao with the Urumqi branch of China Mobile Xinjiang Company.

In 2019, China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom invested a combined amount of 126 million yuan (about $17.8 million) and built 518 5G base stations.

Urumqi, as one of the first 50 Chinese cities that initiated the commercial use of 5G, officially opened 5G commercial services in October last year. Official data show that the number of 5G users in Urumqi has reached 234,300.