The Chinese city of Shenzhen plans to add 10,000 5G base stations this year, as the city seeks to bolster Internet connectivity and digital economic activity across the metropolis.

The plans have been put forward by the Shenzhen municipal government’s Industry and Information Technology Bureau.

The addition of these base stations is part of a move to upgrade existing 5G mobile services, and to further push adoption of its Gigabit Ethernet fiber optic network, reports South China Morning Post.

As of December 2022, there were already 64,000 5G base stations across Shenzhen, which is labeled China's Silicon Valley.

The addition of 10,000 more 5G base stations is tipped to push the area's average Internet download speeds to 500Mbps.

SCMP also reports that Shenzhen officials are keen on expanding its gigabit broadband adoption in the city to 40 percent of residential households, with only 15.6 percent of households accessing speeds of 1Gbps or higher last year, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

China's three mobile carriers, China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom, collectively claim to have more billion 5G subscribers. The country boasts a whopping 2.31 million 5G base stations, the most of anywhere in the world.

5G kit-makers Huawei and ZTE are amongst the companies with a major presence in Shenzen.