Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), China’s telecom regulator, on Friday granted 4G LTE licenses – to run services on LTE FDD technology — to China Telecom and China Unicom.
See live coverage of Mobile World Congress 2015
Both China Telecom and China Unicom conducted trials on LTE FDD technology last June.
Earlier, MIIT issued 4G licenses to China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom in 2013 allowing them to use the homegrown TD-LTE standard.
China Mobile currently leads 4G business with 90 million 4G subscribers based on telecom statistics last year.
China Mobile’s dominance will be challenged as LTE FDD is expected to assist China Telecom and China Unicom to attract more data users.
The ministry has forecast 200 million new 4G users in 2015 as more than 600,000 base stations will be deployed. China had 90 million 4G users at the end of December.
Earlier, China Mobile said that its 4G clients have topped 100 million by the end of January due to its expanded service coverage.
China Mobile has set up more than 700,000 4G base stations, covering over one billion people.
China Mobile forecast 4G users will top 250 million in 2015 and the company will set up one million 4G base stations by the end of the year.
Meanwhile, the company said it has expanded its 4G roaming service to more than 71 countries and regions, forming the biggest 4G network worldwide.
Meanwhile, China Telecom expects to have 100 million new 4G customers in 2015. China Telecom ranked second in the 3G and 4G markets in December by taking 20.5 percent of the market share.
Baburajan K
editor@telecomlead.com
