In 2014, China Mobile 4G almost keeps an leading position in the competition of the three major telecommunication operators in China, with the promotion of 4G hybrid networking of China Unicom and China Telecom in the following, competition is becoming more and more intensified. At present, the most desired thing for China Unicom and China Telecom is nothing but the issuance of FDD LTE licenses, therefore they can conduct a direct pageantry contest with China Mobile in 4G.
In this regard, some media have learnt from the internal channels that, relevant government departments have begun making preparations for the issuance of FDD LTE licenses, if everything goes right they will be issued in the next month.
As we have learnt, China Unicom and China Telecom have received deployment requirements from the regulator in recent months, which asked them to complete the construction or upgrade of the FDD LTE standard 4G base stations by November. As everyone knows, FDD LTE base stations can be upgraded smoothly from the original 3G WCDMA standard base stations through software. Therefore, the FDD LTE standard 4G base stations of China Unicom have already realized the coverage of urban areas and important roads.
For China Telecom, after it was approved to conduct hybrid networking of FDD LTE and TD-LTE in several domestic cities, it has launched 4G mobile phone services in 16 cities in late July, and it further extended to another 24 cities in early September, it also plans to expand to more cities in the next. When China Telecom applied to expand the geographical scope of hybrid networking trials, it has applied for FDD LTE commercial license at the same time.
According to the source, the FDD LTE and TD-LTE hybrid networking trials that China Unicom and China Telecom developed in 40 cities is of significantly effect, and they have separately applied for FDD LTE commercial licenses recently. Like the licensing requirements of TD-LTE, as long as the interoperability is relatively mature among different standards, the FDD-LTE licenses can be issued.
China Unicom and China Telecom are very clear in the deployment of hybrid networking, the TD-LTE will be used in the coverage of urban hot spot regions, while FDD-LTE is for wide area coverage. Because the TDD LTE licenses was licensed earlier and the deployment range is wide, while FDD LTE licenses is issued late and will be more focused on the core cities. At present, the two standards have formed an effective complementary, that’s exactly where the practical significance of hybrid networking lies.
Once the FDD LTE licenses are issued, it will make strong impact on the 4G market development of China Mobile. Some industry analysts said, coverage is the flaw of 4G development of China Mobile, subjected to the restrictions in frequency bands, China Mobile has to builds more base stations to ensure 4G user experience.
As we have learnt, China Mobile makes full use of its advantages in starting first, coupled with huge funds as the backing. By the end of September 30th, China Mobile has built more than 500,000 4G base stations, the 4G network covers more than 300 cities in the country, and the overall scale of investment in this year will exceed CNY 240 billion. Recently, China Mobile has started the third stage of construction of the TD-LTE network base stations ahead of schedule, and plans to build 700,000 4G base stations by the end of the year, far more than the expected 500,000 base stations.
Although China Unicom and China Telecom plays late roles in 4G competition, and it seems there is no obvious advantages in 4G network coverage compared with China Mobile. But after the smooth upgrade of 3G base stations of China Unicom and China Telecom in low cost, they can directly provide 4G services while the network coverage can rapidly exceed China Mobile.
After the media visited several cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Sichuan and so on, they found that there are FDD LTE 4G signals of China Unicom and China Telecom in the main regions of these cities, the average rate is of about 37Mbps, but there are still lack of indoor coverage.
For the upcoming FDD LTE licenses, China Unicom has begun making preparations and develops a "double 4G" strategy. On the one hand it can operate two 4G networks, on the other hand, it will launch devices supporting both the 4G standard, and the latter is its biggest advantage.
At present, more than 21 countries in the world has deployed TD-LTE network, while 102 countries and regions have launched FDD-LTE network, which means that 4G subscribers of China Telecom and China Unicom will be able to enjoy high-speed seamless roaming in more countries and regions, this also forms large pressure on TD-LTE of China Mobile.