China Mobile CEO, Li Yue, called for suppliers to deliver multi-band and multi-mode 4G devices that could be used internationally, not just in China.
Speaking at the Global TD-LTE Initiative (GTI) summit, Yue outlined his ambition for more cooperation among operators. As part of that, he gave his backing to RCS, which allows messaging services across different operator networks.
He expects commercial RCS and VoLTE services later this year
“We want a standardised and converged communications service, available natively [on devices],” he said. “We want to make sure all operators enjoy these services.”
Key to realising Yue’s global ambitions is interoperability between the TDD and FDD variants of LTE – central to the work of GTI.
China Mobile, which was awarded a TD-LTE licence in December, is rolling out the biggest 4G network in the world – and TDD-based – and wants to make sure of interoperability and roaming with FDD LTE networks.
Such is the scale of the network – China Mobile plans to complete the rollout of more than 500,000 4G base stations by the end of 2014, which will cover more than 340 cities – it should focus the minds of suppliers on LTE.
Momentum around dual-mode TDD and FDD devices already seems to be building. Ted Matsumoto, special advisor to SoftBank Mobile’s CEO, said the operator – from now on – will only offer smartphones that support both TDD and FDD.
Speaking at the GTI summit, Matsumoto said SoftBank Mobile had 30,000 FDD sites in Japan and 46,000 TDD sites. (Matsumoto explained there were more TDD sites because they were better suited to dense urban areas than FDD.)
Sprint’s Spark service, launched in October, uses dual-mode and multiband devices – covering 2.5GHz (TDD), 1.9GHz (FDD) and 800MHz (FDD) – from Samsung and LG. It, too, will not be issuing any new devices from now on that does not support both FDD and TDD.