SHANGHAI will see the debut of 4G handsets as early as April when the city starts commercial trial of the service.
All the 4G models, which provide five to 10 times faster Internet access compared with 3G phones, will support China's TD-LTE technology, a 4G standard adopted by China Mobile, the world's biggest mobile phone carrier.
Shanghai's 4G services provides a bandwidth of up to 100 megabytes per second, compared with 3G's peak bandwidth of between 10Mbps and 20Mbps.
But China Mobile's Shanghai branch declined to reveal pricing or other details of the 4G services.
From the second quarter or in April, the telco will start 4G commercial trial services.
By the end of the first quarter, China Mobile is expected to complete the building of 700 4G base stations in Shanghai, covering the Inner Ring region. At present, 4G signals can be found in Zhangjiang of the Pudong New Area, Xujiahui of Xuhui District and People's Square, the company said.
Besides Shanghai, China Mobile is now testing its 4G network in 12 other cities, including Beijing and Hangzhou, ahead of issuing 4G licenses probably at the end of this year.
More than 10 handset models have been developed to support the TD-LTE technology.
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