Telecom network operator China Mobile today said its 4G subscriber base reached 312.28 million in 2015, while 3G user base touched 169.37 million.
China Mobile says its 4G user base increased to 312.28 million in December 2015 from 287.32 million in November and 267.31 million in October 2015. In January 2015, China Mobile had 106.79 million 4G subscribers.
The 3G subscriber base of China Mobile fell to 169.37 million in December 2015 from 178.90 million in November and 187.06 million in October 2015. China Mobile had 241.02 million 3G subscribers in January 2015.
The telecom statistics shared by China Mobile indicates that there is a significant growth in 4G user base throughout the year, while 3G subscriber base nosedived at the cost of 4G LTE.
4G in India
Indian telecom network operators such as Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio Infocomm, Idea Cellular and Vodafone India are expected to power the 4G LTE market in the country. Reliance Jio Infocomm, the 4G venture of Reliance Industries (RIL), is aiming for 100 million 4G subscriber base in 2016-17.
Indian market research agency CMR on Tuesday said it expects 4G shipments in India to surpass 50 million units in 2016. 4G and expansion of reach to Tier II and Tier III markets, besides the rural telecom markets are expected to be the main reasons behind the growth.
Incidentally, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular are continuing to make investment in 3G networks at a time when there is wide spread demand for 4G. These established telecom network operators are not planning massive investment in 4G.
On the other hand, China Mobile has already experienced dip in 3G subscriber growth and significant increase in the number of 4G subscribers in 2015.
Baburajan K
editor@telecomlead.com
