4G is finally here, the three major operators have obtained TD-LTE licenses

The issuance of 4G licenses was finally settled in the last month of 2013.

　　The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's Electricity Administration announced yesterday that it had issued "LTE/Fourth Generation Digital Cellular Mobile Communications Business (TD-LTE)" operating licenses to China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom on December 4, 2013. At the same time, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology also lifted restrictions on China Mobile's fixed-line business, allowing it to enter the fixed broadband market. It is worth noting that this time, no 4G licenses based on FDD LTE technology (the international mainstream 4G standard) were issued.

　　Earlier, during this year's two sessions, Miao Wei, Minister of Industry and Information Technology, said in an interview with a Securities Times reporter that 4G licenses are expected to be issued this year. 4G refers to the fourth generation of mobile communication technology. According to the definition of the International Telecommunication Union, 4G technology must meet the following conditions: static transmission rate reaches 1Gbps, and users can reach 100Mbps in high-speed mobile state.

　　A relevant official from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said yesterday that accelerating the development of 4G commercialization is of great significance to promoting information consumption, stimulating domestic demand, and realizing the national innovation strategy.

　　Taking the development of 3G as an example, in the first three years of my country's 3G development, it has directly driven an investment of 455.6 billion yuan and indirectly driven an investment of 2.23 trillion yuan; directly driven terminal business consumption of 355.8 billion yuan and indirectly driven social consumption of 303.3 billion yuan; directly driven GDP growth of 211 billion yuan and indirectly driven GDP growth of 744 billion yuan. At the same time, the development of 3G directly led to the increase of 1.23 million jobs and indirectly led to the increase of 2.66 million jobs in the three years.

　　因此，该负责人称，在此基础上，随着4G网络的建设部署和4G新业务的不断推出，拉动经济增长和创造就业岗位的效果将更加显著。他还表示，下一步，工业和信息化部将会同相关部委，继续采取有效措施，大力支持并推动相关企业加快建设和优化移动通信网络建设，不断提升网络服务水平和用户服务品质，努力丰富移动互联网业务应用，促进信息消费，有效拉动需求，持续促进信息化工业化深度融合。

　　The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology did not issue FDD LTE licenses this time. Analysts believe that this has cleared the way for China Mobile's development, but will also put some pressure on China Telecom and China Unicom.

　　Previously, in order to cope with China Mobile's 4G offensive, China Telecom and China Unicom made full preparations for the 4G standard based on FDD LTE technology. However, the first batch of 4G licenses issued did not include the FDD LTE that they had carefully prepared.

　　There was an industry view that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is more likely to give priority to issuing TD-LTE licenses this year. Wang Xiaochu, chairman of China Telecom, once said that if only TD-LTE licenses are issued in the first batch, China Telecom is inclined to lease TD-LTE networks from China Mobile to promote 4G network deployment.

　　The first batch of 4G licenses does not mean that the three major operators will only operate TD-LTE. China Telecom and China Unicom have both stated that they will adopt a TD-LTE/FDD LTE converged networking method, which means that they will also obtain FDD LTE licenses in the future. The industry expects that, similar to China Telecom, China Unicom will mainly use FDD LTE, because the upgrade direction of Unicom's 3G standard WCDMA is FDD LTE. China Unicom also stated in today's announcement that it will continue to actively apply for FDD LTE network scale technology trials, relying on the leading quality 3G network to provide users with higher-speed mobile broadband data services.

　　China Mobile is the most enthusiastic in the construction of TD-LTE network. Previously, China Unicom said that in terms of budget, it is expected that the investment in 4G in the future will be controlled within 10 billion yuan. Wang Xiaochu publicly stated in August this year that China Telecom's investment in building 4G network will be transferred from 3G investment by 5 billion yuan, making the telecom's 4G investment this year reach 10 billion yuan. In contrast, China Mobile plans to invest a huge amount of 200 billion yuan.