Real 4G speed only half as fast as promised, test shows

[Global Times]

(ECNS) -- Beyond all the buzzwords and hype about fourth-generation (4G) mobile broadband services, a speed test showed that customers can only attain speeds of 50 Mbps or less, and China Unicom is the loser due to its bad coverage.

China Consumer Report, a Guangzhou-based magazine, tested the three carriers -- China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom -- in several locations downtown, in the suburbs, indoors and in subways and buses in four big cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

4G is known for high speed in theory, 100 Mbps, but the promised speeds are hardly ever met, it was found. Wi-Fi devices and mobile phones with China Telecom services can pump 43.34 Mbps of data downloads at most, and the real speeds for those with China Mobile and China Unicom services were only 38.18 Mbps and 25.81 Mbps, respectively.

China Telecom also beat the other two carriers in speed coverage, with 73.45 percent, against China Mobile's 66.37 percent and China Unicom's 30.97 percent.

The spokesman's office of China Unicom refused to comment on the test results, and one staffer admitted, "China Unicom lags behind in launching 4G services."

Insiders said China Unicom's slow action in 4G is due to its mature 3G networks.

China Mobile, the first of the three carriers to start offering 4G services, is now depending on 4G services to retain its high-end customers and win back those it lost to the other two carriers during the 3G era, according to the Global Times.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said in April that the three carriers are in discussions to build a collective company, which would lead and coordinate construction of telecommunications infrastructure, as the country faces a new wave of base station construction because of the commercial rollout of the 4G network.

China issued 4G mobile network licenses to the three carriers last December, allowing commercial services of the fast mobile technology to start in the world's biggest smartphone market.