4G impact on the entire telecommunications industry

This reporter Li Xiaoyu

4G license issued six months, although the domestic 4G is still a niche user's carnival, but the impact on the entire telecommunications industry is obvious. The latest operator data of the three major operators in April is the best example of the current situation of the newly-increased subscribers of the current operators. With the release of TD-LTE licenses last year, China Mobile can be described as riding a bike in the 4G market, while China Telecom and China Unicom make mistakes without straw. Now, China Mobile is from the terminal, tariffs and other all-round reduction of 4G threshold, intended to promote the scale of existing users of the transfer network. Recently, China Mobile released the first self-owned brand 4G smart phone, dropping the price of five-mode ten-frequency mobile phone to within one thousand yuan. Under the background of domestic 4G single licenses, the integration network expected by China Telecom and China Unicom has yet to be shaped. As more 4G thousand smartphones on the market fall into place, a large number of domestic 2G and 3G subscribers are being levered or just around the corner, This is bound to exacerbate the loss of telecom Unicom users.

China Mobile and then drop 4G threshold

Hand in hand a good card in the 4G mobile development in sparing no effort in laying the TD-LTE network in the Great Leap Forward at the same time, frequently through tariffs, terminals and other new initiatives to reduce the 4G threshold.

After the first self-owned terminal was released in August 2013, China Mobile restarted this strategy. June 6, China Mobile officially released in Beijing, the first own brand 4G smart phone M811, which has also become the industry's first five thousand yuan five-mode 4G phone. Five-inch quad-core, five-mode ten-frequency, 1GB RAM +4 GB built-in storage, 2500mAh battery, plus 999 yuan price, M811 can be described as the current domestic cost-effective 4G mobile phone, from which you can see that China Mobile quickly seize the low-end market attempt.

Xi Guohua, chairman of China Mobile recently said at the shareholders meeting, "At present, China Mobile has 780 million users, most still using 2G mobile phones." According to the latest user data in April, as of April this year, China Mobile's total number of users 780 million, Among them, 3G and 4G users were 2.3 million and 4.798 million respectively, which means that the number of 2G users is still as high as 540 million. According to China Mobile's plan, in 2014 TD terminal sales target is 1.9-2200 million, including 100 million TD-LTE terminals, bare metal sales accounted for more than 50%. To achieve these goals, low-end market expansion is clearly the highlight.

In terms of terminal strategy, China Mobile has pushed its five-mode and ten-frequency terminals to integrate two mainstream 4G (TDD-LTE) and two mainstream 3G (TD-SCDMA and WCDMA) Ten bands focused on 4G mobile phones, TD and FDD through the scale of integration to reduce the cost of low-cost, while attracting competitors to switch users is one of the considerations. Terminal is an important factor in promoting users to switch networks. With the continuous introduction of thousand-yuan 4G mobile phones in the second half of the year, it is bound to accelerate the development of domestic 4G subscribers.

In terms of tariffs, China Mobile also attracted users by drastically reducing its 4G tariffs and removing traffic restrictions. On the 1st of this month, China Mobile's new 4G tariff scheme was officially implemented. Compared with the previous one, China Mobile's new 4G tariff greatly reduced the data flow threshold. For example, the minimum flow rate of 4G traffic package dropped to 30 yuan for 500M, while the minimum for 4G flying share package dropped from 88 yuan to 58 yuan. 4G new tariffs in the highest unit price drop of 50%. In addition, China Mobile 4G new tariffs also broke the monthly system, introduced a third quarter 4G traffic quarterly package and three tranches of traffic six months package, in disguise to break the flow of monthly reset policy.

4G single license to create unilateral market prosperity, user growth polarization is difficult to reverse the trend

Since the release of the TD-LTE 4G license, the new subscribers of the three major carriers have enjoyed the same growth as the past. Revival in the 3G era, China Mobile in the 4G era regains its online competitive advantage. In the first 4 months of 2014, 3G subscribers of China Mobile grew at a monthly average of over 10 million. As of the end of April, the total number of 3G subscribers reached 231.979 million. As for 4G users, 1.34 million were reached by the end of February, reaching 2.793 million by the end of March, reaching 4.798 million by the end of April, almost doubling up. It can be expected that as the network, terminals and other aspects of improved services, 4G subscribers increase in size or just around the corner.

The era of 3G era, China Unicom is not good scenery. Benefiting from the advantages of WCDMA 3G networks and industrial chains, the first three months of China Unicom continued its steady growth. The number of mobile subscribers in January-March increased by 312.3,157.1 and 4.016 million respectively, but suddenly dropped to 895,000 in April, Monthly new mobile subscribers hit a new low since October 2009.

China Telecom is even worse. China Telecom shed 1.03 million mobile users in April again, dropping to 182.17 million. In January-April 2014, the cumulative net decrease of mobile users was 3.41 million. In April, the number of new 3G subscribers alone increased by 830,000 to 104.97 million. China Telecom said that the net loss of mobile subscribers in January-April 2014 was mainly due to the launch of LTE services by its competitors and the enhancement of marketing promotion to exacerbate market competition.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), 4G converged networking is the future trend of development. However, when FDD is still out of schedule, the market pattern of 4G single licenses will inevitably result in the unilateral prosperity of the market. As China Mobile increased the marketing efforts of 4G and continuously weakened the users' sentiment, the trend of polarization of the three major operators was difficult to completely change.

As soon as possible a clear 4G network model positive domestic technology breakthrough

The single-system 4G market has become China Mobile's solo show. The release of TD-LTE licenses for half a year has not yet led to large-scale migration of users due to the unusually rapid promotion of the 4G mobile advertising campaign. However, the impact of 4G business on user sentiment is obvious.

Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said TD-LTE and LTE FDD are the international standards of the new generation of mobile communications. The convergence of TD-LTE and LTE FDD and their mutual development have become the trend of the global mobile communications industry in the future. However, it also pointed out that LTE FDD licenses will be released when the conditions are ripe. This makes the FDD license issued confusing.

For the current single-mode 4G market, Telecom China Unicom is accelerating TD-LTE layout, but also did not conceal the eagerness to get LTE FDD license. Wang Xiaochu, chairman of China Telecom, said recently that it has applied for a license for LTE FDD 4G and is currently working with the government to obtain the license as soon as possible.

In fact, LTE FDD not only concerns the market outlook of the two major carriers, but also benefits the development of China-made TD-LTE standards in the long run. Under the current situation that the state attaches great importance to information security and encourages the development of independent innovation technology, TD-LTE bears the responsibility of making China's information industry bigger and stronger. However, the development of market laws can not give way to administrative interventions and good wishes. The development of China's telecommunications industry needs to finally endure the baptism of the market and is constantly expanding in open cooperation.

Currently, the coexistence of multiple networks of 2G, 3G and 4G will last for a long time. With the increasing scarcity of spectrum resources, the integration of TDD and FDD 4G inevitably becomes a global trend. However, at present, the ecosystem of LTE TDD is not yet well matched with FDD. Operators are confronted with unclear policies, costs and technical difficulties during the process of network integration. As soon as possible from the policy clear 4G plan to promote the deployment of domestic TDD / FDD integration network to provide a model for the global effect, will further promote the development of China's 4G industry.