China to get '10 times faster' pre-5G internet in 2016 amid premier's push for tech development

Hundreds of millions of Chinese mobile phone users will have access to much faster internet as soon as the first half of next year, thanks to a key technology development with strong support from the central government to significantly improve internet speeds.

Maggie Cui, vice president in charge of wireless operation at ZTE, told the South China Morning Post that ZTE has been working with China Mobile, the world’s largest mobile phone operator, to test so-called "pre-5G" connections, which could be more than 10 times faster than current 4G mobile internet.

“There is still some way to go before we can have a global recognised 5G standard but I think we can apply some mature advanced technology to existing 4G network before we officially enter the 5G era,” Cui said on the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) Shanghai.

If successful, China could take the lead in pre-5G and later 5G technology development as top Chinese leaders including premier Li Keqiang have shown their frustration over slow internet speeds that they believe could hurt national economic growth and industrial restructuring.

“China is the world's biggest mobile phone market, but internet speeds are ranked worse than 80th in the world. Our information infrastructure is backward," Li said during a cabinet meeting in May, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

Li said state-owned mobile network service providers should aim to increase speeds for urban users by 40 per cent.