(Yicai Global) March 20 -- Telecommunications operator China United Network Communications Group, better known as China Unicom, has joined hands with Chinese Academy of Sciences to jointly research the combination of fifth-generation wireless networks and satellite remote sensing, the scanning of the Earth using satellites.

China Unicom has inked an agreement with CAS' Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth as well as Zhongke Remote Sensing Technology Group, the Beijing-based firm said in a statement.

The three parties have already worked together on the application of big data related to remote sensing in northern Heilongjiang province.

China Unicom will combine its 5G capabilities and smart city construction with the two partners' remote sensing big data with a focus on meeting market demand from the government affairs, agriculture, forestry, environmental protection fields.

The Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth is an academic research institution that specializes in remote sensing and earth observation, and Zhongke Remote Sensing Technology is an enterprise owned by the institute.

Editor: William Clegg