China Mobile said it is planning to complete the second phase of TD-LTE trials by June 2012, as the Chinese mobile operator moves a step closer to commercialization of its 4G network.
The Chinese operator, the world’s biggest mobile operator by subscribers, finished in September the first phase of TD-LTE trials in 6 major cities with over 850 base stations.
Bill Huang, general manager of China Mobile Research Institute, said 10 infrastructure vendors, including Huawei and ZTE, and six chipset vendors participated in the first phase of the 4G trial, and the initial tests had “met the target LTE requirements.”
He said terminals, chipsets and devices are also making breakthroughs in development, with companies like Huawei and ZTE announcing the commercial launch of multi-mode dongles which support FDD LTE/TD-LTE/
UMTS/EDGE. Multi-mode handsets are also in engineering samples.
“Next year we will see data terminals in mass production, and the commercial launch of multi-mode handsets, which are expected [to be] in large volume supply in 2012,” he told an industry event in Hong Kong.
The next phase of the 4G trials, he added, will see the TD-LTE network running for large-scale commercial use, and the company may invite more vendors to participate. China Mobile also plans to launch a network demonstration in Beijing's main Chang An Street, as well the financial district and university areas in the north part of the city.