- Shanghai Mobile, a subsidiary of China Mobile in Shanghai, reveled on February 23 that the company is poised to launch its TD-LTE (Time Division-Long Term Evolution) demonstration networks on a large scale in 2011, as part of its 12th five-year plan, the Sohu IT News reported on February 23. In addition, the company is projected to build 200 macro stations by the end of March 2011 in inclusive of 50 indoor networks. As of the end of March, the company will complete the first phase of TD-LTE network deployment and the company plans to complete its second phase deployment, to cover all commercialization and administration areas in Shanghai city by year-end 2011, according to the same source. At the Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona, China Mobile's CEO Wang Jianzhou, said that the TD-LTE network is expected to cover 50 million users at a certain time. Aside from Shanghai, China Mobile is also conducting TD-LTE network demonstrations in other five cities, including Hangzhou, Nanjing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Xiamen.
- the combined number of 3G users subscribing to mobile services provided by three Chinese leading telecom operators China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom totaled to more than 50 million for the first time as of the end of January 2011, the Xinhua News Agency reported on February 22, adding that the accumulative mobile users of these three telecom giants reached nearly 853 million in total.
China Mobile had more than five million new mobile subscribers alone in January 2011, bringing the total of its subscriber base to nearly 590 million, and 23 million of which are 3G users. China Telecom had 3.5 million new mobile subscribers in January 2011 alone, bringing the total to 94 million, and 13.64 million of which are 3G users. In January alone, China Unicom had almost 2.2 million new mobile subscribers. Of the company's total 170 million subscriber base, more than 154 million are 2G users and more than 15 million are 3G users, according to again to the Xinhua News Agency.