China Moves Ahead with 4G Networking

China is the world’s largest smartphone market, and as of October 2013 the user count was up to 1.2 billion. The largest Chinese carrier is China Mobile Ltd., with that same count showing China Mobile representing 62.3 percent of the 1.2 billion users.

The second-largest carrier in China is China Unicom Hong Kong Ltd., with a 22.6 percent share of total users. China Telecom Corp Ltd. takes up the third spot with a 15.1 percent share. But there are some big changes coming into China’s telecommunications future.

News from Beijing by way of Reuters is that China has awarded 4G licenses to the three major telecom carriers. The breakdown is as follows:

China Mobile, China Unicom, China Telecom awarded licenses for the 4G LTE standard, also known as TD-LTE in China;

Frequency Division Multiplexing, known as FDD-LTE licenses for China Unicom, Telecom not yet announced;

China Mobile receives a license to operate fixed-line broadband services.

These licenses were issued by Chinese authorities to all three carriers. China Mobile has a bit of a head start in that it has already been marketing its soon-to-exist 4G services. Local regulators have also stepped up and cleared select phones that are capable of supporting TD-LTE.

On Wednesday, Dec. 4, the country's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said it would still need to test the FDD-LTE technology before it issues the licenses. That means that as of today, China is only issuing the licenses needed to operate TDD-LTE networks. The FDD-LTE is more widely adopted everywhere else.

It is interesting that while China Mobile is China’s largest carrier when it comes to the number of subscribers, the telecom has lagged behind the two smaller companies. The area that it lacks in is attracting users to what is considered to be its home-grown 3G standard. Apparently this standard provides poorer network service.

Another issue that China Mobile has had is that it has no distribution deal for the iPhone. This makes it the only carrier to not offer its customers an iPhone. This is due to the fact that Apple was not willing to undertake the necessary changes that were needed to make the iPhone work on China Mobile’s proprietary 3G technology. The company calls it TD-SCDMA.

It seems however, that a couple of years ago, Apple and China Mobile came to an understanding on 4G technology. Apple agreed that its iPhone would work with China’s TDD-LTE network. This means that shortly and for the first time China Mobile will be able to offer the iPhone. In fact, according to a report on Fortune.com, China Mobile has already quietly begun to take pre-orders for iPhones.

China Mobile issued a statement on its website acknowledging the award of the 4G and fixed-line broadband licenses. The company would "collaborate with the supply chain to make an all-out effort to push forward the construction and operation of 4G mobile communications.”

Carriers are not the only ones who can expect to benefit from the commercial 4G rollout. Equipment makers such as Huawei Technologies Co and ZTE Corp as well as Chinese Internet firms can all expect to see some benefit of the 4G rollout.