China Mobile (0941.HK), the world's top mobile carrier, could roll out a state-of-the-art mobile network based on new LTE technology as soon as 2011, an industry group executive promoting LTE said on Wednesday.
The Chinese carrier previously confirmed it would build a trial Long Term Evolution (LTE) network, considered the next generation in wireless communications, in the city of Shanghai when the World Expo takes place there next year.
China Mobile has not commented on its plans to roll out a nationwide commercial LTE network, but many believe it would like to do so in the near term to avoid heavy investment in its current 3G network which it was ordered to build based on a problem-plagued homegrown technology known as TD-SCDMA.
"China Mobile and (smaller domestic rival) China Telecom (0728.HK) have both said they are committed to LTE," Michael O'Hara, chief marketing officer of the GSM Association, told Reuters in an interview at a telecoms show in Hong Kong.
"China Mobile will be an early adapter. We expect China Mobile to do (LTE) trials in 2010, and deployment in 2011," he added.
A rapid roll-out of LTE by China Mobile, which boasts more than 500 million subscribers, would provide a huge boost for the technology, which promises to bring broadband-quality data transmission speeds to mobile services.
The transition to LTE, considered a fourth-generation mobile technology, would be a relatively quick one for China Mobile, which only received its third-generation (3G) mobile licence earlier this year.
