ZTE CEO Xu Ziyang estimates that China’s 5G infrastructure will cost $165 billion over the full construction cycle. The price set will be 50 percent more than invested in 4G.

Xu stated the country’s mobile operators had deployed 690,000 5G sites in 350 cities by the end of September. He also said that ZTE had secured 55 commercial 5G contracts and is working with 90 operators worldwide.

ZTE accounted for 30 percent of global RAN shipments in Q2, Xu claims. He said the RAN market grew 20 percent year-on-year to $9.4 billion, noting the growth was driven in large part by an aggressive standalone 5G drive by Chinese operators.