Business / Companies

China Mobile seeks to expand across the globe

By Gao Yuan and Hu Yuanyuan (China Daily) Updated: 2014-03-05 09:03

"TD-LTE is becoming accepted by major markets, which could be a chance for Chinese companies to extend their business reach outside China," said Cao Shumin, CATR president.

SoftBank Mobile Corp in Japan and US-based Sprint Corp are the most active overseas TD-LTE supporters, Cao said.

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SoftBank is seeking to cover 97 percent of the Japanese population using the technology and plans to set up about 50,000 base stations by the end of this year, according to the academy.

Sprint is building 38,000 stations across the United States, it added.

"More than 20 nations have adopted the 4G TD-LTE technology. We are now ready to explore European and US markets," said China Mobile's Xi.

China Mobile made its first overseas acquisition in 2007, when its parent company bought Pakistani telecom operator Paktel Ltd for about $300 million.

The Chinese operator is also looking to expand to Hong Kong, where competition among carriers is heavier than on the Chinese mainland.

The southern city's wealth of telecom talent and positive investment environment will make it a good starting point for China Mobile's exploration of overseas markets, according to Xi.

There is a bigger demand for LTE overseas than in China, because the nation's 4G service kicked off only about three months ago.

Global subscriber numbers for LTE networks, where users are increasingly trying out 4G services, is on track to hit 400 million in 2014, said Cao. The amount is set to break 1.5 billion by 2017, she estimated.

"The rise of super-fast 4G networks was accompanied by an inevitable drop in older standards such as the Global System for Mobile and Wide-band Code Division Multiple Access," said Cao.

"That means carriers have to adopt new business models because unprecedented Internet traffic brought by 4G and even 5G networks will fundamentally change the way people use their smartphones," she added.