China Unicom has become the last of the nation's three mobile operators to launch TD-LTE services.
Unicom's LTE network has gone live in 25 cities, Shanghai Dailyreported. The operator aims to extend the network to more than 300 cities and sell 100 million 4G handsets by the end of the year.
China Unicom is offering eight 4G plans, with the entry level plan costing 78 yuan ($12.60) for 400MB of data per month. The company is selling 4G handsets starting at 1,000 yuan.
Incumbent China Mobile's cheapest package is 138 yuan with a 600MB allocation, but the company will soon launch a 88 yuan plan for 400MB of data.
China Mobile officially launched TD-LTE services in December following extensive live trials, and China Telecom switched on its network in February.
Unicom had planned to rely primarily on FDD LTE for its 4G network, but China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has so far only awarded licenses based on the homegrown TD-LTE standard.
As a result, Unicom is expected to pursue a dual-technology 4G rollout once FDD licenses are handed out.