The joint construction and sharing of Shanghai's telecom infrastructures has played an important role in the city's major projects, including the World Expo site, Hongqiao traffic hub, and Lingang new city, and the three major Chinese telecom operators claim to have realized full joint construction and sharing of mobile base stations for the 2010 Shanghai World Expo site.

According to reports in local media, in 2009, China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Telecom built a total number of 1,687 mobile towers in Shanghai, including 1,215 jointly constructed towers with a jointly constructed rate of 72.0%; they built 3,602 new base stations, including 1,387 jointly constructed ones with a jointly constructed rate of 38.5%; they raised requirements for sharing of 415 towers and base stations and achieved sharing of 299 towers and base stations, with a sharing rate of 72.0%; and they built 3,063 kilometers of new transmission lines, including 1,253 kilometers of jointly constructed lines with a joint constructed rate of 40.9%.

The joint construction and sharing measures reduced repeated investments and saved funds and land resources. China Telecom Shanghai and China Unicom Shanghai have reportedly saved over CNY100 million investments for construction of mobile base stations and will save fees for equipment maintenance of over CNY10 million each year. For China Mobile Shanghai, it not only saved construction costs, but also saved about 14,300 square meters of land and over 3,700 tons of steel by participating in the joint construction and sharing of towers of other operators in 2009.

In January 2010, China Telecom Shanghai and China Unicom Shanghai signed a new joint construction and sharing agreement to include the first batch of 136 mobile communications macro base stations in the two parties' joint construction and sharing list. By the end of 2010, the number of joint constructed and shared macro base stations in Shanghai is expected to reach over 600.