Telecom Lead @ GSMA MOBILE ASIA EXPO 2012: SoftBank,
Japanese telecom operator, has more than 100,000 LTE 4G users.
SoftBank launched commercial services earlier this year.
Ted Matsumoto, chief strategic advisor to the board of
SoftBank, said that the Japanese number three now has more than 100,000 users
for its services, following a commercial launch earlier this year.
Currently, SoftBank only offers one wireless hotspot device. It will offer two
more of these in the next quarter. In addition, in Q4 it is set to launch its
first smartphone supporting TD-LTE, manufactured by Huawei, with the operator
intending to move to the point where most of its smartphone range supports the
connectivity.
Speaking at the GTI Asia Conference, Xi Guohua, chairman
of China Mobile, said that the company’s pilots have proved that TD-LTE is
capable of supporting big networks, with a large flow of data.
China Mobile intends to make further investments and
further efforts to speed-up the implementation of TD-LTE, with the intention to
grow both its network size and its user base although that will depend on
the maturity of the whole industry, especially the maturity of the terminals.
With services currently only available using data devices, China Mobile will
work with partners to launch smartphones in the latter part of this year or
next year.
Both executives also supported the need to support roaming, in order for LTE to
become the enabler of international data services for travelers. China Mobile
said it is looking for more active exploration of the options for data roaming.
