China Has to Upgrade Directly to 3.5G

As the mobile broadband network is evolving, China may have to directly build up 3.5G networks even though it is still in the early stage of 3G network construction.

Latest numbers from Ericsson show that the number of HSPA users increased tenfold in the past year, reflecting the mobile broadband is taking the center stage.

GSMA lately announced that 3.5G mobile broadband subscribers increased to 50 million by now from 11 million last year globally.

Looking into the future, China will have two HSPA networks. At the moment, China Mobile, the biggest mobile telecom carrier in this country, has upgraded TD-SCDMA networks in ten cities to 3.5G networks with HSDPA function. China Unicom will also upgrade its WCDMA network to HSPA.

In Shanghai, TD handsets users are able to get access to the Internet at the speed of 1M/S by simply inserting a network card.