China Mobile's 4G Covers 300 Cities and 6.5 Million Users

HONG KONG, June 12, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- "China Mobile's 4G network has accumulated 6.5 million users and covered 300 cities across the country since its launch six months ago," Li Yue, CEO of the company, said on Wednesday in Shanghai, at the GTI (Global TD-LTE Initiative) Asia Conference during Mobile Asia Expo 2014 hosted by GSMA.

According to Li, China Mobile has set up over 320,000 TD-LTE base stations with the 4G service commercially available.

Although the 4G customers currently account for less than 1 percent of the total subscribers, they contribute 10% of total mobile data traffic, and 3 times ARPU as other users.

Li noted that China Mobile had made great effort to achieve faster data rates and wider coverage. The company aims to promote the development of LTE-Advanced and hopes that new technologies with higher efficiency can be applied to the LTE network.

So far, China Mobile has sold more than 12 million TD-LTE smartphones and the company aims to sell 100 million 4G devices by the end of this year.

"We hope to introduce over 300 models of TD-LTE terminals this year, and our major focus is to bring $100-$150 4G smartphones that support 5-mode and 10-band or 5-mode and 12-band to our customers," said Li Yue, adding that 5-mode global roaming-enabled 4G terminals priced under $100 are expected to hit the market at the end of this year.

Relevant terminal technologies will be further evolved focusing on VoLTE, Rich Communication Suit (RCS) and multicarrier-based terminal system with broader bandwidth and faster data rates.

The company also released new version of VoLTE White Paper and RCS White Paper, which provide more detailed description on the technical specifications.

"China Mobile is willing to join hands with industry players to promote the convergence of RCS and VoLTE," said Li, "We also expect that all telcom operators can tie up with each other, under the coordination and organization of GSMA, to improve the construction of future-proof communication systems, and provide users with more flexible and friendly service."

GTI, jointly founded by China Mobile, SoftBank, Bharti, Clearwire and Vodafone, has now enrolled 108 operator members and 86 partners and has promoted the commercial launch of more than 400 models of TD-LTE terminals with 37 TD-LTE commercial networks all over the world.