Chinese telecoms watchdog the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has issued China Mobile with a licence to offer mobile services based on FDD-LTE technology, the operator confirmed in a press release. In its statement the cellco explained that, in line with the requirements of the licence, it would: ‘vigorously promote the development of mobile Internet of Things and Industrial Internet on a nationwide basis, actively initiate the scale application of TDD/FDD convergence network and comprehensively enhance the quality of high-speed broadband mobile communications services in rural areas, and raise the overall network quality at a lower cost.’
As noted by TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, Mobile favours the TD-LTE standard over the FDD-LTEalternative and was instrumental in promoting the technology’s adoption worldwide – the cellco having previously suffered from the limited takeup of its 3G technology of choice, TD-SCDMA. The operator claims to have deployed and operated the world’s largest TD-LTE network, which comprises more than 1.5 million base transceiver stations (BTS) and covers over 1.3 billion people.