China Telecom plans for hybrid LTE network

China Telecom is ramping up its 4G efforts, with plans to build a hybrid TDD-FDD LTE network after China issues the 4G licenses.

 

China Telecom chairman and chief executive Wang Xiaochu said the company plans to spend 5 billion yuan ($816.5 million) this year to deploy LTE trial network.

 

Wang said most of the LTE network investment would support both TDD and FDD services in order to provide flexibility in long-term development.

 

“To support national technology innovation and allow flexible use of spectrum resources to meet customer demand, we plan to deploy one hybrid LTE network of integrated resources, sharing the core network with wireless access through both TDD and FDD,” Wang told a press conference for the company’s interim results on Wednesday.

 

Wang didn’t provide details such as the timeline and scale of the LTE trial network, but said the deployment would start from densely populated areas.

 

He said it is in talks with China Mobile to rent the company’s TD-LTE network, but the discussion is still in early stage and is focused on technical aspects.

 

“Most likely we will build our own core networks and share base stations as well. It will take a long time for [the talks to conclude]… The discussions so far are still focusing on technological aspects, and we still haven’t gotten into the business aspects,” he said.