China Unicom Ltd., a telecommunications company, is expecting to spend up to 8 billion yuan ($1.2 billion) in the fifth next-generation (5G) networks in 2019.
With the infusion, China Unicom aims to roll out the next-generation networks via making use of the current fourth-generation infrastructure and building new base stations.
China Unicom, which in 2017 had $43.3 billion in revenue, said that its 5G project came after it received regulatory approval to carry out 5G trials in China in December.
In 2017, China Unicom announced plans to divest 35 percent of its Chinese unit to a group of investors that included internet giants Alibaba, Tencent, JD.com and Baidu.