China Mobile Draws Up a New Blueprint for the Migration from 4G to 5G

BARCELONA, Spain, Feb. 24, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- China Mobile launched its 5G Joint Innovation Center project at the GTI Summit 2016, which was held during the World Mobile Congress (WMC) in Barcelona, Spain on Feb. 23, 2016. The world's largest telecom company also announced its business targets of reaching 1.40 million TD-LTE base stations, selling 330 million 4G devices and expanding the 4G subscriber base to over 500 million by the end of 2016.   

According to Mr. Shang Bing, Chairman of China Mobile, the company has deployed 1.10 million TD-LTE base stations as of the end of 2015, covering over 1.2 billion population and has achieved 4G roaming with 114 countries and regions; China Mobile sold 300 million TD-LTE devices in 2015, indicating the addition of more than 400 TD-LTE users every minute; China Mobile's 4G subscriber base reached 340 million, accounting for about 30% of global number. Moreover, China Mobile has completed the deployment of carrier aggregation (CA) in over 300 cities and has commercialized VoLTE services in 100 cities. 

Speaking of the goal for next year, Shang Bing said that China Mobile will speed up 4G deployment by increasing the number of TD-LTE base stations to 1.40 million and deploy CA technologies in central and hot-spot areas of all cities by the end of 2016; to commercialize VoLTE services in over 260 cities in the first half of 2016; to commercialize the Rich Communication Service (RCS) in the second half of the year; to accelerate the uptake of VoLTE/CA-enabled devices, sell 330 million 4G devices and expand the 4G user base to over 500 million in 2016.     

China Mobile supports GTI in driving the global deployment of TD-LTE and the converged development of FDD/TDD and will actively promote roaming of 4G and VoLTE. It will develop dedicated networks for the Internet of Things and aims to develop 100 million IoT connections in 2016. Moreover, Shang Bing pointed out that the company expects to increase the maturity of narrow-band IoT (NB-IOT) and strives to commercialize it in 2017.

Mr. Li Zhengmao, Vice President of China Mobile, together with the representatives of the first 11 partners, jointly launched the China Mobile 5G Joint Innovation Center at the summit. The Center aims to conduct joint innovation on applications and products with industry partners in such areas as basic communications, IoT, telematics, industrial Internet, cloud robotics and virtual/augmented reality, through open labs, and thus build an integrated cross-industry ecosystem and achieve win-win cooperation in the process of migrating from 4G to 5G. Early partners include Huawei, ZTE, Ericsson, Nokia, Qualcomm, Datang, Intel, Keysight, Beijing Shougang Automation Information Technology Co., Ltd., Haier, and Hisense.

China Mobile also introduced cost-effective VoLTE/CA devices and chip solutions during the summit, including its self-branded VoLTE/CA devices such as A1s, A2 and N2. Together with Samsung, China Mobile introduced 5 new customized VoLTE devices; in partnership with Qualcomm and MTK, China Mobile launched VoLTE+ down-link and up-link CA chip solutions at the price point of $100; jointly with Spreadtrum and Leadcore, China Mobile released VoLTE chip solutions at the price point of $50.

The summit marks the 5^th anniversary of GTI.  Over 700 representatives from the ITU, the Chinese government, GSMA, China Mobile, India's Bharti, Japan's Softbank, Korea's KT participated to share their views and insights on such topics as the converged development of TD-LTE and TDD/FDD across the world, TD-LTE evolution, trends of 3.5GHz industry, 5G strategies and visions, and cross-industry applications. Having released the next five-year strategic plan, GTI is committed to promoting the commercialization of TD-LTE on a wider scale in the world and the deeper integration between TD-LTE and FDD, enabling TDD technology to play a more important role in the 5G era, and building up an eco-system for win-win cross-industry cooperation.