China Mobile recently announced that the company has opened a tender for a TD-LTE (Time Division-Long Term Evolution) data card R&D project, the China Business News reported on August 6, 2009, as part of its efforts to pave the way for 4G. The deadline for tender applications was on August 4, 2009. Several leading telecom equipment suppliers, including Datang telecom, ZTE, Huawei, and Potevio, reportedly have participated in the tender and begun testing TD-LTE networks in Shanghai, according to the same source.

Aiming to achieve full TD-SCDMA (TD-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access) network coverage and launch a TD-LTE trial network at the World Expo 2010 Shanghai, China Mobile expects mainstream telecom equipment suppliers to offer TD-LTE equipment for the commercialization and/or pre-commercialization of TD-LTE services by year-end 2009 and provide terminal products, including data cards, in the second quarter of 2010. Meanwhile, China Mobile is set to deploy LTE trial networks in 2010 and plans for small-scale commercialization of LTE networks in 2011. Additionally, it is anticipated that China Unicom and China Telecom will begin LTE network constructions in 2012.