China admits plot to conquer the world ... with its own 4G

People's Republic ordered to invade mobiles

The Chinese government has demanded more trials of its homegrown 4G mobile broadband standard TD-LTE in hope of eventually rolling it out across the globe, according to China Daily.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) made the pronouncement and ordered “testing system equipment based on multi-mode chipsets”, the state-run paper reported.

MIIT minister Miao Wei is apparently keen to tout the TD-LTE standard globally after China’s 3G TD-SCDMA technology failed to gain traction outside the country.

In fact this flop still remains an issue for China Mobile and Apple: Cupertino refuses to produce a TD-SCDMA-compatible iPhone despite the potentially huge market awaiting the fruity tech titan.

Further signs that 4G is picking up pace in China came when Zhang Xiaoqiang, a member of China’s Reform and Development Committee, and a China Mobile representative travelled to Hangzhou to test the high-speed mobile broadband service on a bus, according to Tech In Asia. The bigwigs connected their mobile gadgets to the bus's Wi-Fi base station, which then used 4G technology to reach the wider world.

The site also pointed to recent Frost & Sullivan research that claimed the market for wireless test equipment in China is booming, driven in part by TD-LTE development.

Although state-run carrier China Mobile has launched a 4G service in neighbouring Hong Kong, the Chinese government has been rather more cautious about the next-gen network technology.

The authorities have decided that until providers double the number of mobile phone masts across the vast country, no licences will be doled out – something that could take two or three years to achieve. ®