At present, no one is more eager than China Unicom and China Telecom for the issuance of FDD-LTE commercial licenses. Because whether from the view of technologies or competition, the issuance of FDD-LTE licenses will promote the development of China's 4G to popularity in more rapid speed.
Tencent technology has learnt from informed sources close to the MIIT, the issuance of FDD-LTE commercial licenses is in preparation, all the three major operators have previously submitted applications, and the issuance time is currently determined in mid-December.
Previously, Tencent technology has reported that the MIIT has asked China Telecom and China Unicom to complete the construction and related upgrade work of FDD-LTE base stations before November, which have entered the final stage of multi standards interoperability debugging before licensing.
"The MIIT had said clearly when issuing the TD-LTE licenses to the three major operators that “FDD-LTE licenses will be issued when conditions are mature, the issuing time has been determined in the mid-December, but the specific time is still under discussion." The informed source said.
In this condition, we hasn’t got clear answers when acquiring the three major operators, but some insiders said that there is 80% possibility that this is the right time. Even soon after the issuance of TD-LTE licenses, rumors in the outside said that FDD-LTE licenses will be issued in the following year, and December of 2014 just fits that.
In the industry’s view, once the FDD-LTE commercial licenses are issued, which means the beginning of the real contest of 4G among the three major operators, the one-year leading development of China Mobile may repeat the failure in 3G era, but the actual situation may not like this.
According to the latest data of China Mobile, its 4G subscribers have exceeded 50 million, which is a month ahead of schedule in completing the annual goal. At the same time, China Mobile is also working on the strengthened depth coverage, the number of constructed 4G base stations has raised from the original planed 500,000 to 700,000, with a focus on the indoor coverage and rural market in the next stage, China Mobile hopes that the 4G network will be built as a high quality network comparable to its 2G network.
Analysts have pointed out that although the 4G network construction of China Telecom and China Unicom is relatively easy compared with China Mobile and can be upgraded smoothly, they will not form a great impact on China Mobile in a short time, what’s more, China Mobile will also deploy FDD-LTE network, which will be complementary with the existing TD-LTE network.
For China Mobile, the deployment of FDD-LTE network can make up for its weak in 3G. In regions where TD-LTE cannot cover, the 4G network will transform to 3G or 2G network. It is well known that the 3G TD-SCDMA network of China Mobile is not so satisfactory. If the FDD LTE network will be deployed, the long existing short board in 3G may be eliminated.
The impact on China Mobile TD-LTE is in roaming, if you have to say. Because FDD-LTE is relatively mature in the overseas, it is relatively favorable for China Unicom and China Telecom in the subsequent development. Although China Mobile has comprehensively asked the vendors to launch devices support five-mode ten-band, it is frustrating that the share of TD-LTE commercial market is too small in the global.
As data shows, more than 21 countries in the world have deployed TD-LTE networks, but 102 countries and regions have opened FDD-LTE networks, 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 than China Mobile, and this is definitely not a small pressure for China Mobile TD-LTE network.
Although the integration of FDD-LTE and TD-LTE networking and complementation is the direction of future technologies, but takes the global development and the long time competition of the three major operators in domestic, the so-called complementation and integration of networking is not easy.