(Yicai Global) Sept. 17 -- MTS, Russia's largest cellphone operator, has built the nation's first city with fifth-generation wireless network coverage while using equipment from China's Huawei Technologies on a small island with a naval base nearby St. Petersburg.

Russia's first 5G network city is Kronstadt on Kotlin, Science and Technology Daily reported today. The Moscow-headquartered cell operator and the capital city's municipal government also constructed a 5G area to test smart city solutions in Moscow.

MTS plans to cooperate with mobile phone manufacturers to launch 5G handsets at a point from the end of this year to the beginning of 2020. The Moscow administration seeks to expand the use of 5G next year to driverless vehicles, the Internet of Things, and telemedicine in the capital after key institutions get familiar with the technology on the island. 

Preliminary tests show that Huawei's 5G technologies work well, Russian professionals told the same source. The network speed reached 1.2 gigabits per second during tests.

Editor: Emmi Laine