Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau mega bridge now has 5G, opening door to immersive sight-seeing tours
- The 5G network will also help a national research and development plan to guide intelligent operation and maintenance of the bridge
Next time you go across the mega bridge linking Hong Kong with Zhuhai and Macau, remember to bring a 5G smartphone to enjoy your favourite TV drama streamed in lighting fast speed courtesy of the bridge’s new 5G services – provided you are the passenger.
A total of 24 5G base stations have been installed on the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge (HZMB), a 55-kilometre bridge-tunnel system, which is both the world’s longest sea crossing and longest open-sea fixed link.
The mainland section of the bridge has enjoyed full 5G coverage since early July, with an average speed of 600 megabits per second (Mbps). The speed is expected to reach as high as 1000 Mbps later, according to the department of transportation of east China’s Guangdong province.
Over time the 5G network is expected to enable the development of applications such as immersive sightseeing tours, high-definition facial recognition and autonomous driving tests on the bridge, according to the local government.
The next-generation network will also help a national research and development plan to guide intelligent operation and maintenance of the bridge, together with the country’s Beidou navigation satellite system and other new technologies, such as big data and 3D digital modelling. Launched late last year, the R&D plan will last about three years.
China Telecom and ZTE are already working on 6G technology
Su Quanke, chief engineer of HZMB, said it would take at least three months and cost over 10 million yuan (US$1.43 million) for a traditional, manual inspection of the whole bridge and that time and labour costs could be greatly reduced via the use of artificial intelligence.
“In the past, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge was a world-class physical bridge. In the future, we will build the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge into a world-class digital bridge,” Su said in May in a statement on the official website of the bridge.
With peak data rates up to 100 times faster than what current 4G networks provide, 5G has been described by experts as the future “connective tissue” for the Internet of Things, autonomous cars, smart cities and other new mobile applications, establishing the backbone for the industrial internet.
Amid the impact from Covid-19, China has accelerated its bid for global leadership in strategic technologies, and plans to pump more than a trillion US dollars into the economy by 2025 through the roll-out of 5G networks and the adoption of artificial intelligence.
The HZMB, which cost around 120 billion yuan to build, operates 24 hours a day and connects major cities across the southern Pearl River Delta region. Su said that if the digital management of the HZMB bridge proves a success, the lessons learned could be applied to Belt and Road projects.
