The debut of 4G networks is one of the most anticipated events in China this year. China Mobile first rolled out its 4G network in December 2013, and the other two major carriers, China Telecom and China Unicom, are to follow suit in 2014. However, a lack of compatible phone models and potentially exorbitant fees have largely prevented the public from making the switch in the near future.

“4G” stands for fourth generation of mobile technology. Simply put, each generation marks an increase in Internet connection speed. Theoretically 4G networks can deliver download speeds up to 300 Mbits, or around 25 Mbps, several times faster than those of 3G or 2G networks. According to a nationwide speed test carried out by ZDnet in the United States, the average download speed on 4G networks is 6.5 Mbps, whereas 3G speeds average at around 2 Mbps. The increase in speed would result in a better user experience with existing online services, especially bandwidth-intensive ones. For example, users would be able to stream HD-quality movies from Hulu without frequent buffering, upload a video clip to YouTube in seconds, and chat with friends on Google Hangouts without constant lag.

Plans to introduce 4G to China have been around since 2008, when China had just finished deploying 3G networks. It took another 5 years before China Mobile, the country’s largest mobile carrier, officially launched its 4G network in December 2013. The delay was largely caused by the development and deployment of China’s homegrown TD-LTE network standard, which the government hoped would reduce the country’s dependency on foreign patents in 4G technology. The three major carriers in China have all been granted licenses to build TD-LTE networks. China Unicom and China Telecom, on the other hand, claim that their 4G networks will also be compatible with FDD-LTE, the globally accepted 4G standard. However, no exact timetable for deployment has been released by either of the carriers.

As a result of China’s preference of TD-LTE, customers with phones branded “4G-compatible” are likely to find themselves unable to use 4G networks in China for the time being, since few of these phones are compatible with China Mobile’s TD-LTE network. The selection of TD-LTE compatible phones from China Mobile is also limited. Despite the addition of TD-LTE versions of Apple’s iPhone 5c/5s earlier this year, the number of TD-LTE phone models listed on China Mobile’s website remains at a meager eight.

The lack of compatible phones drew a lot of criticism from users. As Weibo user @羁旅情怀 complained:

“@羁旅情怀: I wanted to buy a TD-LTE phone before Chinese New Year, but there were too few models available. I am really worried about you. @ChinaMobile



@羁旅情怀:年前想换个TD-LTE手机，终端类型太少，真是替你们拙计啊 @中国移动”

Another factor that has prevented customers from switching to 4G is the mobile data tariffs. Though China Mobile actually offers 4G data plans at a slightly lower rate than its 3G data plans, customers are still skeptical about how the increase in Internet speed would impact their phone bills. Li Guoqing, CEO of a large e-commerce website in China, posted this sarcastic post on Weibo, which has quickly gone viral:

“@当当网李国庆: The rates of China Mobile’s 4G plans have just been announced. I took a quick glance at the rates: 40 yuan / 300MB. If the connection speed can actually reach 100 Mbit/s as they boasted, the plan would be used up in 3 seconds. So 3 seconds / 40 yuan, 1 minute / 800 yuan, 1 hour / 48, 000 yuan. If you forget to turn off mobile data for one night, the next morning your house will be owned by China Mobile! This really reflects the company’s motto: China Mobile changes life!



@当当网李国庆: 移动公司的4G资费出台了，今天看了一眼，40元包300M流量，按照他吹牛B的话每秒百兆的速率，这个套餐3秒就用完了，3秒40元，一分钟800元，一个小时4万8千元。如果哪天晚上万一忘了关闭网络链接的话，等你一觉醒来你的房子都tm的快成中国移动公司的了！ 应了移动那句名言：移动改变生活！”

[Note: The calculation in the post is actually erroneous as the author has confused megabits and megabytes, which are two different units. The conversion rate between the two units is 100Mbit/s ≈ 12 Mbyte/s. Actual speed the user would get might be lower since other factors also influence connection speed.]

Customers of China Unicom and China Telecom, on the other hand, may still have to wait a few months (or weeks) before their carriers launch their 4G networks. No doubt 4G holds huge promise in an emerging market with 1.3 billion potential customers, but the standard incompatibilities, lack of available phone models, and customers’ concern over the data tariffs are holding the technology back from being adopted by the general public in China.

This article was written by Richard Lewei Huang. Send an email to [email protected] to get in touch. Photo Credit: Shutterstock