China issues 4G licenses

A woman passes by a China Mobile 4G billboard in Shanghai, Nov 19, 2013. [Photo/icpress.cn]

China officially issued fourth-generation mobile network licenses on Wednesday to the country's three telecom operators.

Three 4G licenses were handed out to China Mobile Communications Corp, China United Network Communications Group Co Ltd and China Telecommunications Corp.

The licenses are all based on Time Division - Long Term Evolution standard.

The TD-LTE technology is regarded as a Chinese-developed 4G standard. The other popular 4G standard is Frequency Division Duplexing - Long Term Evolution.

Chinese telecom operators have already invested resources into 4G networks.

China Mobile is actively promoting three homegrown TD-LTE 4G technologies. The operator aims to build 200,000 4G reception stations for a TD-LTE network of more than 500 million people in China this year.

China Unicom and China Telecom recently began procuring 4G network equipment and mobile terminals. Wang Xiaochu, China Telecom's chairman, confirmed that the company is stepping up efforts for its LTE network trials.

"It's inevitable (for China Telecom) to adopt a converged TD-LTE and FDD-LTE network since the spectrum is at the core of every carrier's resources," Wang said in a June interview.

Reaction from various telecom-related companies 

Ericsson (world's largest telecom equipment vendor by sales)

With the issuance of 4G licenses, China now officially enters the 4G era. This will not only introduce unlimited new opportunities to the entire ecosystem of the global ICT industry, but also fasten the pace of our journey towards the Networked Society for hundreds of millions of Chinese consumers who have been eagerly looking forward to a richer 4G life.

4G LTE is the fastest developing system in the history of mobile telecommunications. Thanks to its superior speed, reliability and flexibility, LTE is quickly becoming the indispensable infrastructure of an emerging Networked Society. Everywhere in the world where 4G services are commercially available, great potential is being released on an unprecedented scale among people, businesses and the society to drive innovation and transformation.

"I believe that 4G LTE will provide new driving force for the sustainable societal and economic development for China. And the LTE networks supplied by Ericsson will not only deliver best-in-class performance for Chinese 4G users, but also enable Chinese enterprises to innovate and succeed on the global arena in the brand new 4G era,” Jan Signell, President of Ericsson North East Asia.

ZTE Corp (China's second-biggest telecom equipment vendor by sales)

ZTE is glad to see that the Chinese telecommunication market has entered into a 4G express track. ZTE is an international company and we have deployed 4G networks in multiple overseas countries. ZTE is the market leader in China’s 3G equipment market and is confident about maintaining our advantages in technology and service fields in the 4G era. We strive to provide qualified networks, as well as mobile devices with better user experiences, to Chinese customers.