Mobile carrier takes bookings for 4G phones
Print Edition
The first handsets compatible with the 4G network can now be reserved by China Mobile users in Shanghai.
There are five package levels — 50 yuan (US$8.2) for 600 megabytes (MB) of data traffic, 70 yuan for 1 gigabyte (GB), 100 yuan for 2GB, 130 yuan for 3GB and 180 yuan for 5GB.
The packages don’t include voice calls, and industry analysts say the final price for the cheapest package could be over 100 yuan.
Shanghai Mobile is also offering additional data at 10 yuan per 100MB.
The first two models available will be the Samsung N7108D and Sony M35T.
Registered China Mobile users can reserve handsets at 17 Shanghai Mobile outlets throughout the city. Online reservations will be available on Shanghai Mobile’s website later.
China Mobile is expected to kick off 4G services on December 17, according to industry sources, and the company aims to cover 100 cities by the middle of next year and 340 cities by the end of 2014.
It said previously that a total of nine phones compatible with its 4G technology would be available in Shanghai by the end of the year.
However, there have been some concerns that the cost of 4G is still too expensive and a number of potential customers have said, in online comments, that they would wait to see if the network proved to be stable.
One said: “The choice of 4G handsets is too limited at the moment and I will wait for some time before I decide whether to shift to the 4G network or not.”
Jenny Mao, a Shanghai office worker, said she would not consider the 4G network for now as she was already on China Unicom’s 3G network and that was fast enough for her.
Also yesterday, Beijing Mobile opened reservations for a 4G compatible iPhone model.
More than 12,000 people had booked one as of 5pm yesterday.
China issued the long-awaited 4G licenses to three telecommunications carriers last week.
China Mobile got the home-grown TD-LTE (time-division long-term evolution) license, while rivals China Telecom and China Unicom got both TD-LTE and the more international FDD-LTE (frequency-division) licenses.
The 4G network is said to offer Internet access 20 to 50 times faster than the current 3G network.
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