BEIJING -- Major Chinese telecom service providers are prepared to spend roughly 300 billion yuan ($43.6 billion) by 2020 to achieve nationwide fifth-generation mobile communications coverage, boosting the chances of Chinese technology and services becoming de facto global standards.

The 5G technology will bring much faster data speeds than those offered by the 4G standard, and this telecommunications protocol also will be the first developed with the internet of things in mind. Hundreds of billions of devices are expected to exchange data as the internet of things takes hold, and mobile networks likely will serve as a key conduit.

Charging ahead

China Mobile Communications, which boasts over 800 million subscribers, will develop 5G-related technologies with more than 40 global companies. Participants will include top telecom equipment makers such as Sweden's Ericsson, Finland's Nokia and China's Huawei Technologies, as well as U.S. chipmakers Qualcomm and Intel. The presence of industry outsiders -- including General Motors of the U.S., Germany's Volkswagen and China's Alibaba Group Holding and Haier Group -- reflects wide-ranging potential applications for these mobile services.

China Mobile has ended basic technology development and plans to begin field trials of 5G technology this year, aiming to commercialize services in select areas in 2018 and start upgrading over 1 million 4G base stations to handle the new standard in the following year. The company aims to spread 5G services nationwide in 2020.

Fellow provider China United Network Communications Group, or China Unicom, will develop technologies jointly with Qualcomm. China Telecom also looks to enter the fray.

IoT, autonomous driving

China is the world's No. 1 mobile phone market, with service subscribers exceeding 1.3 billion. The country also stands at the cutting edge of related services such as electronic funds settlement, as well as ride-hailing services.

The creation of 5G networks likely will accelerate the development of new services, as it will enable wireless linking of various home appliances via the internet. Businesses should be able to centrally control multiple factory robots more easily and improve maintenance of machinery by using big-data analysis to spot potential breakdowns.

The next-generation technology also likely will help improve the performance of self-driving vehicles, such as by letting cars exchange data among each other and avert a collision.

China will need developed 5G networks under a road map mulled by Beijing to achieve fully autonomous driving in 2025 and boost sales of self-driving vehicles to about 10% of total new-car sales by 2030. A leading role in developing 5G technologies also is expected to give Chinese companies an edge internationally in autonomous driving and the internet of things.