China Mobile has initiated the registration process for its pre-commercial 4G / LTE in 13 cities within China. China Mobile indicated eligibility requirements for applicants: (1) has been China Mobile’s subscriber for over 1 year (2) ARPU > RMB 50 for past three months (3) no bad debt record (4) monthly mobile data usage > 50MB for past three months.
The initial 4G terminals to be available to successful applicants will be MiFi (wireless routers that act as mobile Wi-Fi hotspots), USB Dongles and CPE (customer-premises equipment). Therefore, users have to first establish connectivity between MiFi and a 4G base station, and then establish connectivity between handset and MiFi.
Why is China Mobile Rolling Out 4G / LTE with Mi-Fi ?
There is a significant difference in the data downloading speed of China Mobile’s 3G service (1 Mbps) versus China Unicom’s 3G service (10+ Mbps). China Mobile Managers probably think that subscribers would prefer to use mobile data service at Wi-Fi hotspots instead of China Mobile’s 2G / 3G networks and thus see how they perform.
4G Mobile Handset Hurdle China Mobile has specified its requirements for TD-LTE handsets to work on 5 modes (TD-LTE / FDD LTE / TD-SCDMA / WCDMA / GSM) and 10 different frequency bands. This presents a certain level of technological challenge to all players (handset makers, equipment vendors) within the ecosystem of TD-LTE.
Based on statistics from the 3G service launch, the take-up rate began to take off steadily when 3G handsets were made available. Until TD-LTE (4G) handsets are made available, do not expect initial take-up rate of 4G service to be material. Reliance Jio Infocomm in India is also expect to follow China Mobile in rolling out its 4G / LTE High Speed Broadband Services.