Huawei and ZTE announce plans to deploy a 5G network on Mars by 2020

At a joint press conference in the China National Space Administration's Beijing headquarters, Huawei and ZTE announced their intentions to deploy a planet-wide 5G telecommunications network on Mars by 2020. The roll-out will happen in consecutive stages, beginning with the Tharsis and Elysium provinces - home of the largest known volcanoes in the Solar System. It will then proceed with the ancient Hellas, Argyre, and Isidis impact basins, before carrying on to the Valles Marineris - a beautiful 4000km long system of interconnected canyons and roughs.

Eventually, China's 5G Martian efforts will reach the planet's famous polar ice caps as well. By then, the companies estimated, Mars' 5G network infrastructure should be fully operational and the majority of available spectrum allocated between the highest-bidding Earth carriers. The two telecoms promised that Mars' 5G network will offer the same astonishing speeds as its Earthly counterpart. However, they admitted that future subscribers in specific areas, such as the 22km-tall Olympus Mons, will have to rely on flying drones for coverage, which might result in slight speed drops – anywhere between 0.5 to 1Gbps, depending on weather conditions. While this was being discussed, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg chimed in via Google Hangouts to congratulate Huawei and ZTE for “bringing the power of the Internet” to “the next billion Martian people”, and voiced his desire to get involved with "the drone part".