Zhanjiang became the world's first commercial pilot city for gigaband and cloud VR (virtual reality), officials announced at a press conference held on Sept 3.

The press conference, jointly hosted by the Zhanjiang branch of China Mobile and Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, was attended by Huang Mingzhong, vice mayor of Zhanjiang, Zhu Hanwu, vice general manager of Guangdong Mobile Communication Co, and Huang Zhiyong, chief marketing officer of Huawei.

According to Huang Mingzhong, with the popularization of the gigabit network in Zhanjiang, VR will be widely applied in the city's industries like transportation, education, medical care, and agriculture, boosting the intelligent upgrading of industries.

Zhanjiang will be devoted to building a VR industry cluster, contributing to the city's digital transformation, added Huang.

People try the cloud VR applications at the press conference held on Sept 3. [Photo/WeChat account: gh_af724c75e13a]

The Zhanjiang branch of China Mobile and its VR cooperative partners also built a cloud VR demonstration and experience area at the press conference, showcasing their innovative 5G application results in the fields of smart manufacturing, smart ports, smart medical care, smart life tech, and smart education.

In recent years, Zhanjiang has been boosting its information infrastructure construction by cooperating with telecommunications enterprises and upgrading the city's optical network.

The city's optical network users have increased from 57.7 percent in 2016 to its current 97.9 percent, with its ranking in Guangdong province rising from 20th to second.

The optical network coverage of all the administrative villages or communities in the city reached 100 percent, and that of the city's natural villages was 97.5 percent, which is expected to reach 100 percent by the end of this year.

Zhanjiang has newly built 2,194 5G base stations since the beginning of this year, completing the annual target set by the provincial government ahead of schedule. The total number of 5G base stations in the city has reached 2,574.

It has realized 5G network coverage in the city's urban area, towns, and key industrial parks, which has laid a good foundation for the commercial use of gigaband and cloud VR.