Telecom Unicom ushers in "late spring"

Li Na Wu Feng Heng

"This spring is late, but it does not mean that the spring flowers will bloom."

Recently, Wang Xiaochu, chairman of China Telecom appeared in the China Telecom Tianyi mobile phone fair, looks good, he gave the day the media created two focuses, the first is a commercial trial license FDD will be in his speech 2 hours officially announced; the second is that China Telecom has actually deployed a large number of FDD pilot networks in many cities. For 4G, telecommunications are ready.

Different from previous silences, Wang Xiaochu expressed his views on 4G business. He said: "We are now extremly deprived of 4G terminals and have put large numbers on the network. The network has been completed and we hope everyone will work together in just over 20 days. Can provide a certain number of 4G mobile phones to meet consumer demand. "

With 16 cities being included in TD-LTE / LTE FDD hybrid networking trials, 4G competition among operators is in full swing.

Telecom Unicom ushers in "late spring"

On December 4, 2013, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the license of "LTE / 4th Generation Digital Cellular Mobile Service (TD-LTE)" to the three major carriers, marking China's official entry into the 4G era.

In 4G communication, there are two modes of LTE FDD and TD-LTE. However, China Mobile (00941.HK) started to develop China's independent TD-SCDMA standard in the 3G era. China Unicom (600050.SH) and China Telecom adopted WCDMA and CDMA standards that are incompatible with TD in the 3G era respectively.

TD-LTE After half a year's development, the competition of domestic operators has undergone significant changes.

Prior to the release of China Mobile's previous May user data, 4G users grew rapidly, reaching 8,109,000.

The pattern of 4G competition remains unclear

At the tenth seminar of TD-LTE Global Development Initiative (GTI) on June 11 this year, Li Yue, president of China Mobile, said that China Mobile has built 320,000 TD-LTE base stations covering 300 cities and sold a total of 1,200 Million 4G mobile phones, 4G roaming in 8 countries and regions. By the end of 2014, Li Yue expected China Mobile to achieve 50 million 4G users.

In China Mobile's "run-in" TD-LTE phase, the other two major carriers did not devote themselves to the inevitable competition in the backward, but "hard" countries to issue LTE FDD license as soon as possible.

China Unicom in April only 895,000 3G subscribers, creating the lowest increase in nearly 5 years. However, China Telecom saw a sharp decline in 3G subscribers. In May this year, it lost 950,000 subscribers. In the first half of this year, the cumulative loss of more than 4 million subscribers has been reduced to 100 million of the "red line."

"Although this issue of FDD is only a commercial license trial, but it allows China Telecom, China Unicom to develop commercial trial under the name of the franchise FDD network, customized terminals." A telecom analyst on the "First Financial Daily" told reporters.

At the just concluded 2014 Tianyi Mobile Trade Fair, China Telecom and its distributors and terminal operators signed purchase confirmations in three batches of 10 million, 44 million and 7.45 million respectively, of which 7.75 million were purchased by Tianyi Terminal , Signed a total of 62 million units, the terminal force.

In fact, China Unicom has long been prepared in the FDD network construction, at 17:00 on the 27th, FDD trial commercial license issued soon after, some users have shown Unicom FDD signal.

The situation in 4G is not yet clear

Although China Mobile won the first mover advantage, its integration in the 4G industry chain did not reach the ideal.

Li Yue had expected that by the end of 2014, China Mobile will build 500,000 4G base stations. However, he also pointed out that at present, China Mobile has reached 6.5 million 4G customers, which is only 13% completed by China Mobile in its annual goal of 50 million users.

Telecommunications experts Fu Liang told reporters that the 4G market is difficult to start the biggest reason is that 4G network construction progress, coverage, tariff levels, have not yet reached the heavy volume requirements. In the mobile phone chip, MediaTek 4G chip to be put into commercial until the second half of this year, the first half of the available suppliers only Qualcomm, Marvell.

In fact, with the success of China Unicom's successful 3G, China Unicom is not willing to prematurely enter another game circle - the increasingly fierce 4G competition, how to keep the 3G advantage and continue to expand market share has become a real issue placed in the Unicom, so no matter Is the tariff or network construction and terminals, China Unicom are taken to bind the principle of seeking only coverage, not for 4G full bloom.

However, some analysts believe that with the issuance of the FDD-LTE 4G trial network license, China Unicom can finally go through 4G business operations and release numbers in the stipulated 16 cities. Finally, the marketing of "Waugh 4G" has a focal point. However, the intensity of recent publicity, the telecommunications was significantly more initiative.

Earlier, for Telecom, China Telecom had to spend huge sums of money and time in trying to push forward the development of 4G because at present, no operator in the world has successfully implemented CDMA and TD-LTE seamlessly.

Relevant Chinese telecom operators said that telecommunications actually deployed a large number of FDD pilot networks in several cities, but the license restrictions were not advertised and could not be opened to users. With the issuance of the FDD trial network license, China Telecom can finally make clear a series of measures for 4G chips, terminals and subsidies, which will greatly accelerate the layout of its own 4G industry chain. Therefore, China Telecom will be the biggest beneficiary of the FDD-LTE 4G trial network license issuance.

However, Fu Liang believes that the network has a construction cycle, and 4G coverage requires a certain process, this process requires at least 1 to 2 years, so the current 4G is still in its infancy, the competitive landscape is not yet clear.