Chinese coal producer Jinneng has partnered with domestic telecoms firm China Mobile and technology provider Huawei on a 5G underground trial.

The trial saw Jinneng use 5G for intelligent remote control of roadheaders in its Tongxin Mine, reported Mobile World Live.

The 5G network was able to achieve latency of less than 100 ms with a reliability of 99.99%, the companies said at the China 5G+ Industrial Internet Conference in Wuhan, Central China's Hubei province.

"[There are] 148 5G pRRUs [remote radio units] deployed in the Tongxin Mine where the pilot is. The base stations are moisture-, dust-, and explosion-proof and work with a 3:2 uplink and downlink bandwidth configuration, ensuring full coverage across underground areas and the high bandwidth required by the fully mechanized mining faces and heading faces", noted the presentation.

The companies added that the 5G remote roadheader control pilot is one of several innovations coming out of the Shanxi Intelligent Mining Innovation Lab, which was formulated by Jinneng in partnership with regulatory agencies.

The trial announced comes after Chinese telecommunications company ZTE said last December it was collaborating with a state-owned iron and steel enterprise on an 5G-enabled autonomous mining truck project in East China's Anhui province.