China Tower to Transform Telecom Towers Into “AI-Ready” Digital Infrastructure

China Tower will accelerate the transformation of its telecommunications towers into digital and intelligent infrastructure to support growing AI demand, Chairman Zhang Zhiyong said at MWC Shanghai 2026.

The company has built about  2.15 million towers at the end of 2025, 6.2 million base station sites, including 3.26 million 5G sites, and has already upgraded around 250,000 towers with digital capabilities for applications such as environmental monitoring, emergency response, and land management.

Zhiyong said China Tower is also expanding edge computing, AI-powered network operations, renewable energy systems, and infrastructure for the low-altitude economy, while integrating satellite and terrestrial networks to support future 5G-Advanced and 6G deployments.