China Mobile has escalated efforts to widen the adoption of time-division duplex long-term evolution (TDD-LTE) technology - the high-speed 4G standard backed by the mainland - with a major network build-out in Hong Kong and an international roaming pact with a US carrier.
The Beijing-based wireless network, the world's largest with 677.5 million subscribers at the end of May, yesterday said it had selected Sweden's Ericsson and mainland supplier ZTE to build an TDD-LTE network for its Hong Kong unit, which will combine that new infrastructure with its existing high-speed network that supports the other 4G standard known as frequency division duplex long-term evolution (FDD-LTE).
Financial terms of that deal were not given, except that Ericsson and ZTE have a 50-50 share of the network construction.
Sean Lee, chief executive of China Mobile Hong Kong, said the 'seamless integration' of FDD-LTE and TDD-LTE networks would allow the carrier to provide dual-mode 4G services by the end of this year.
Advanced 4G networks have theoretical internet download speeds of up to 100 megabits per second. The fastest existing 3G networks run at 42Mbps. China Mobile Hong Kong is licensed to run 4G services on both the 2.3-gigahertz and 2.6GHz frequency bands.
Mats Olsson, president of Ericsson China and North East Asia, said the project 'further consolidates our network leadership in the region'.
Ericsson, the world's biggest telecommunications equipment supplier, is involved in 67 4G LTE projects in 30 countries.