The country’s three major state-owned carriers—China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicorn—opened the network in about 50 cities, including Beijing and Shanghai. People with 5G-compatible smartphones will be able to buy subscriptions to access it. The carriers are offering significant discounts to get users onto the network, on which they’ve spent over US$43 billion just this year. (Bloomberg)

Talking point: Though other countries like the U.S. and South Korea have offered 5G for months, China is expected to become the world’s largest provider in the next few weeks, not just because of its large population, but because of significant investments from Chinese telecoms. This strategy is especially significant for Huawei, whose equipment the U.S. has been trying to have other countries blacklist for security reasons; being a key player in the world’s largest market will help dull those effects. In July, the company said it already had over 60 commercial contracts for 5G infrastructure globally, with at least 28 of those being in Europe.