DigiTimes has announced that Chinese firms, China Mobile and China Telecom plan to sell 136 million 4G Time Division Long Term Evolution (TD-LTE) devices in 2014.
Currently, China Mobile is the world’s largest wireless provider by subscribers and for 2014, it plans to sell 100 million TD-LTE terminals, as well as 90-120 million devices compatible with its home-grown TD-SCDMA 3G platform.
Likewise, CDMA operator China Telecom, the smallest of China’s trio of cellular companies said it plans to sell 36 million 4G devices in 2014, alongside 64 million 3G (CDMA2000) terminals.
It is currently in the process of procuring 300,000 TD-LTE MiFi routers, USB modems and CPE (customer premises equipment) devices. Major bidders for the contract are domestic vendors Huawei and ZTE.
China Telecom is also planning to launch entry-level TD-LTE smartphones priced at CNY1,000 (USD163.8) in the first half of 2014 as well as mid-range and high-end models in the second half. China’s second-largest cellco, China Unicom, also has a concession for TD-LTE services, although it wants to focus more on rival platform Frequency Division (FD)-LTE.
