China Mobile Communications Cooperation (CMCC) is taking key steps in upgrading to a 4G network. The company recently opened the project of joint research and development for the TD-LTE (Time Division- Long Term Evolution) data card to public bidding. The closing date for companies to submit applications was August 4, according to persons from the company.

LTE will be mainstream in the next generation of wireless devices. CMCC opened the project to public bidding in hopes of jump-starting LTE testing for the 2010 Shanghai World Expo. President of the CMCC branch in Shanghai, Zheng Jie, told a CBN journalist that CMCC would construct a presentation network of TD-LTE to show the evolutionary technical level beyond 3G.

Insiders of CMCC said several equipment vendors for the expo have already started testing in Shanghai, such as Datang, Huawei, Zhongxin, and China Putian.

The LTE strength of equipment vendors from China provides CMCC with a powerful source of energy. Gartner, a consultant firm, issued a report entitled "Scorecard for Vendors of Long Term Evolution Network Infrastructure." The report is the first comprehensive and itemized assessment of global LTE vendors' competitive strength. According to this scorecard, Ericsson, Huawei and Zhongxin ranked as the top three, respectively.

The World Expo will be CMCC's first testing network toward 4G. CMCC hopes to have mainstream vendors able to provide TD-LTE commercial or would-be commercial equipment by the end of this year. By the second quarter of 2010, relative vendors should be able to provide terminal products such as the TD-LTE commercial data card.

According to a report issued by the consulting firm In-Stat, LTE is the only way of transitioning from 3G to 4G and will be the next "gold mine" in China after 3G. CMCC is expected to deploy the would-be commercial LTE network in 2010, and to introduce the commercial LTE network on the small-scale in 2011. China Unicom and China Telecom will then start constructing the LTE network in 2012.

(China.org.cn by Wang Yanfang, August 6, 2009)