China approves pilots for 4G development

China on Friday approved two major telecom carriers, China Telecom and China Unicom, to conduct experiments on the LTE FDD and TD-LTE standards of the fourth-generation (4G) mobile network.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in a statement that it made the approval after the two mobile service operators applied for the pilots.

China Telecom and China Unicom will be allowed to experiment on the joint development of both 4G standards in 16 Chinese cities to follow the trend of integrated LTE development and promote efficient use of resources.

Last December, the ministry licensed China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom to operate the home-grown TD-LTE standard, or Time Division - Long Term Evolution, ushering the country into a new era of high-speed mobile service.

"LTE FDD (Frequency Division Duplexing) licenses will be issued when conditions become ripe," the ministry said.

China is the major promoter of the TD-LTE standard and is also a major owner of the standard's core patents. LTE FDD is the other international 4G standard and is popular in Europe.

China Mobile, the country's largest operator, is the main beneficiary of the TD-LTE license issuances as it dominated TD-LTE research and development in recent years. By the end of May 2014, China Mobile's 4G users totaled 8.11 million.

The company aims to provide 4G services in more than 340 cities, sell over 100 million 4G devices and attract 50 million users by the end of this year.

However, due to lack of core technology and infrastructure related to TD-LTE, China Telecom and China Unicom lacked impetus in developing the standard and long looked forward to beginning LTE FDD experiments.

In the first five months of this year, China Telecom saw its total number of mobile service users drop by 4.36 million, partly due to promotion of 4G services by competitors.

For the new experiments, China Telecom and China Unicom will systematically test integrated development of the two 4G standards, the MIIT said.

Through the experiments, they will tackle technological problems in the way of integrating different mobile standards, promote the development of LTE chips, 4G devices and other supporting areas, it said.

Late on Friday, China Telecom and China Unicom both unveiled their respective lists of the 16 cities for the pilots, including the municipalities of Shanghai and Chongqing and some provincial capitals.

"The move marks another step toward the 4G era, and the step is more prudent than before," said Li Shuchong, CEO of the Beijing-based CCID Consulting Co.

It is innovative for the MIIT to first allow pilots of integrated development of the two standards, instead of directly issuing LTE TDD licenses, he said, adding that China's 4G market is still in its preliminary stage.

The experiments will make it easier for consumers to accept technological problems, and meanwhile operators can learn the habits of users during the process, according to Li.

He also urged operators to pay attention to problems in infrastructure, services, technology and terminal devices during the experiments and make timely improvements.