TD-LTE leads advancement of China's telecom technologies

China's homegrown fourth-generation (4G) telecommunications technology, the TD-LTE, is poised for user numbers to hit 70 million by the end of the year.

"After almost a year of commercial trials, both networks and user numbers have grown considerably," said Yang Hua, secretary-general of the Telecommunication Development Industry Alliance (TDIA).

China Mobile, China's largest telecom service provider, had more than 50 million 4G clients on TD-LTE at the end of October.

The Time-Division Long-Term Evolution (TD-LTE) technology is one of the two major international standards for 4G, with the other being FDD-LTE (Frequency Division Duplex).

There are 14 TD-LTE chip manufacturers worldwide, with total chip output expected to top 100 million by the end of the year. There are also over 1,100 models of phone which can use TD-LTE technology.