(Yicai Global) Sept. 4 -- China's southern hi-tech city of Shenzhen and the country's three main telecoms operators penned a deal today to install 45,000 fifth-generation base stations across the city to realize full 5G coverage by the end of next August.

The Shenzhen branches of China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom will work together to fit 15,000 5G base stations by the end of this year and the remainder by the deadline, The Economic Observer reported, citing Jia Xingdong, director of the Shenzhen Industrial and Information Technology Bureau.

Shenzhen is making great efforts to achieve total 5G coverage. Base stations will first be installed in residential communities, parks and other open areas where they can be erected without charge. The government will also allow free access to state-owned or state-run properties and only charge for the actual costs of building the base stations and related management expenses.

Shenzhen has an advanced electronic information industry and is fully capable of creating a 5G industrial cluster, Jia said. It will strive to build two 5G industrial clusters by the end of 2022 with an output value exceeding hundreds of billions of yuan.