This photo taken on May 13, 2025 shows an unmanned helicopter used for emergency rescue at the booth of Chinese UAV enterprise United Aircraft at the fourth Yangtze River Delta International Emergency Disaster Reduction and Rescue Expo in Shanghai, east China. (Xinhua/Wang Xiang)

China plans to have at least 90 percent of its low-altitude public air routes covered by high-speed mobile telecommunication networks at the end of 2027, according to a guideline issued by five government departments on Tuesday, state broadcaster CCTV News reported.

And, existing 5G base stations and the country's advanced BeiDou navigation satellite system will be tapped.

The document, jointly issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), and three other departments, aims to provide a solid foundation for the sound and orderly development of the low-altitude economy by fully leveraging the capabilities and resource advantages of the latest information and communications technology.

By 2027, multi-source integrated sensing solutions will be refined, low-altitude navigation service levels will continue to improve, and no fewer than 10 information infrastructure standards will be developed, according to CCTV News.

A number of typical low-altitude application scenarios will be formed in areas such as urban governance, logistics and transportation, and cultural and tourism, according to the guideline.

Du Jiadong, a senior expert with the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, was cited as saying that existing 5G/5G-A high-quality networks and other facilities should be fully utilized, with appropriate optimizations to provide basic communication and sensing services for low-altitude applications.

Through experimental verification, challenges such as air-ground collaborative networking should be addressed, 5G-A integrated sensing and communication capabilities enhanced, and research and validation of integrated sensing algorithms should be conducted, Du said.

Du said that, in terms of low-altitude communications, existing 5G and other mobile communication network infrastructure should be fully leveraged in areas along low-altitude routes below 300 meters and in hotspots for low-altitude applications.

The BeiDou ground-based augmentation system and the BeiDou navigation public service platform should be tapped, with BeiDou positioning augmentation information broadcast via 5G and other mobile telecom networks.

The guideline also proposed the country strengthen the construction of regulatory capability systems, plan dedicated number of drones, and advancing the development of "one aircraft, one code, one number" capabilities.

The market size of China's low-altitude economy is expected to reach 1.5 trillion yuan ($216.7 billion) in 2025 and exceed 3.5 trillion yuan by 2035, demonstrating strong growth momentum, the CCTV News reported.

Several Chinese localities, including South China's Guangdong Province and Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, have recently unveiled recommendations for formulating local 15th Five-Year Plans for economic and social development, with some provincial governments aiming to boost the low-altitude economy and other cutting-edge technologies.

Global Times