Homegrown 4G standard finding fans overseas

China's homegrown standard for fourth-generation wireless technology has started to make its way abroad.

By June, nine telecom operators across the world had introduced commercial services on Time Division-Long Term Evolution, or TD-LTE, networks, according to China Mobile Communications Corp.

TD-LTE has been promoted by China Mobile since 2008. In October 2010, the International Telecommunication Union selected the upgraded version of the technology, TD-LTE Advanced, to be one of the six international standards to be used for 4G networks.

The union placed the six different standards into two categories, "LTE-Advanced" and "WirelessMAN-Advanced".

Most of the world's telecom carriers said they prefer using "LTE-Advanced", which consists of TD-LTE and Frequency Division Duplex LTE, or FDD LTE.

Currently, TD-LTE's development still lags far behind FDD LTE's.

Analysts say TD-LTE technology has become the first China-initiated mobile standard to be truly used globally. Its homegrown 3G predecessor, known as TD-SCDMA, failed to achieve that goal because it was not as well developed as its rival 3G technologies and it wasn't used outside China.

Among the first telecom carriers to deploy TD-LTE commercial networks were Mobily in Saudi Arabia, Softbank Corp in Japan, and SKY Brazil in Brazil. Another 16 operators have announced commercial plans for TD-LTE networks, said Li Zhengmao, an executive vice-president with China Mobile.

Public figures show 36 TD-LTE trial networks existed in the world by June.

"2012 and 2013 could bring the greatest of historic opportunities for TD-LTE technology's globalization," Li told China Daily.

Li said the number of telecom operators in the world that have applied for mobile broadband spectrum has hit a peak, meaning such operators will soon have to choose which 4G technologies they want to use.

"Now is a very important time for TD-LTE to draw carriers' attention," Li said.

Some foreign carriers have praised the Chinese 4G technology in public. Sanjay Kapoor, chief executive officer of Bharti Airtel for India and South Asia, said the company is in favor of the standard.

"It is easy to deploy and it gives customers the best experience," he said at the GSMA Mobile Asia Expo, an event organized by an association of mobile operators, in Shanghai in June.

Ted Matsumoto, chief strategic adviser to the board of Softbank Corp, said Softbank has started moving faster to build and deploy a TD-LTE network since the beginning of the year and now has more than 100,000 users in Japan.

The number of TD-LTE base stations operating in Japan is expected to reach about 10,000 by the end of the year, up from the current 7,000, he added. In addition, Softbank is negotiating with China Mobile "on TD-LTE roaming in China and Japan", Matsumoto said in June.

Sources in China Mobile said some US telecom operators have shown interest in building a TD-LTE network, suggesting that China's homegrown 4G technology has a chance of entering a developed telecom market in North America.

The Global TD-LTE Initiative, the international TD-LTE alliance launched by China Mobile in 2011, has attracted 48 telecom carriers so far. The initiative is meant to promote the convergence of TD-LTE and FDD LTE.

As announced in the initiative operator's action plan in February, 500,000 TD-LTE base stations are to be deployed globally by 2014. They are to have more than 100 terminal models, enough to provide service to more than 2 billion people.