This isn’t digital signage in the traditional sense. There are no playlists, no CMS, and no pixels that power these little structures that comprise a network called “Digital City Signage.”
China Telecom’s Shanghai branch has unveiled these installations across the city to translate complex telecom concepts into simple visuals as part of Shanghai’s push toward more resident-friendly digital services.
The structures – appearing at intersections and pedestrian corridors – offer visual explanations of computing power, 5G-A, cloud networking, and AI, giving the public an accessible window into the city’s expanding smart-city ecosystem. The signage ties into the broader “Smart Cloud Shanghai” framework, using icons and everyday language to help residents understand services that usually operate behind the scenes.
With Shanghai now fully covered by 10-gigabit networks, the displays highlight how this infrastructure shows up in daily life, from one-click parental controls to stable 5G-A performance at packed concerts to AI-powered business tools available through the “AI Store.” Early public reaction has been strong, with many people stopping to photograph and interact with the installations.
Local media have embraced the rollout, framing the artistic displays as a symbol of Shanghai’s completion of what’s regarded as the world’s largest urban digital infrastructure. China Telecom says the approach can scale globally under its emerging “AI City” model.
Despite its misleading name, this is more like digital-signage-adjacent public art with a twist, offering the idea of digital transformation without an actual screen anywhere in sight.