URUMQI, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is building 5G base stations based on existing transmission towers, local authorities said Tuesday.

The State Grid's Urumqi power supply company said the construction of the first such 5G base station was completed on Sunday in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang.

Building 5G base stations on existing transmission towers can greatly shorten the construction time and reduce costs, and the electromagnetic field of power lines won't impact the 5G equipment, according to the company.

Apart from sharing the towers, the company also plans to provide power supply units for telecom operators to support the 5G facilities, as well as operation and maintenance services.

The State Grid Xinjiang Electric Power Co., Ltd. said 100,000 out of 2 million transmission towers and power poles scattered in the vast region can be shared to install 5G facilities.

China has sped up the efforts to develop 5G technologies and networks. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology granted commercial-use 5G licenses in June to the country's top three telecom operators -- China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom.