XINING - China's Qinghai-Tibet Plateau recently had its first 5G base station opened in the city of Xining, Qinghai province, according to the Qinghai subsidiary of telecom firm China Mobile.

The service was opened last week. Currently, part of the city's downtown area is covered by 5G service, with a peak download speed of 1.3 Gbps, about 10 times that of 4G service.

The high altitude province of Qinghai has lagged behind in infrastructure construction. In April 2018, the local government vowed to develop new wireless technologies such as 5G network.

The province also plans to offer information services such as virtual reality and telemedicine thanks to faster internet speeds.

Officials with the company said 5G service is expected to improve communication between Qinghai's Tibetan-populated areas and the rest of the country by closing their information service gap.