China Mobile had the number of its TD-LTE subscribers growing to 54.45 million as of the end of October 2014 and is expected to see the number reach 80 million at the end of the year, according to Digitimes Research.
The number of China Mobile's TD-LTE subscribers has begun to increase fast in the second half of 2014 mainly because the telecom operator has offered relatively low pricing, been expanding TD-LTE network and launched many inexpensive TD-LTE-enabled terminal devices, Digitimes Research indicated. In 2015, China Mobile is expected to focus TD-LTE operation on marketing in rural areas and enhancing value-added services.
Its local rivals, China Telecom and China Unicom, have set up trial LTE FDD/TD-LTE hybrid networks in more than 50 cities around China and may obtain LTE FDD operating licenses (each already obtained a TD-LTE license) in early 2015. However, with LTE FDD/TD-LTE hybrid licenses, China Telecom and China Unicom are still unable to break China Mobile's existing dominance in China 4G market.