China Unicom 4G network speed exceeds 140 Mbps
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology officially issued 4G licenses to the three major operators last week, marking the official entry of the domestic communications industry into the 4G era. If there are no unexpected events, China Mobile will officially launch its 4G brand on the 18th of this month, and arriving along with it should be the 4G version of the iPhone 5S/5C for Mobile. Meanwhile, China Telecom's 4G brand name has already been confirmed, but as for China Unicom, it is still keeping things under wraps, leaving people puzzled about what exactly it has in store.\ Looking at Unicom's current network format, upgrading to LTE FDD would naturally be the best choice, but unfortunately, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has only given it a TD-LTE license for now, so Unicom has to proceed reluctantly. There are also reports indicating that Unicom will inevitably obtain an FDD-LTE license in the future and will directly upgrade to LTE-Advanced (abbreviated as LTE-A, which is the same format used by a South Korean operator), with peak speeds reaching 150 Mbps. According to the information revealed today, this seems to be true.\ Last night, @C Technology exposed screenshots of Unicom's 4G network speed tests and its promotional slogan. From the slogan, Unicom has made it clear that its 4G speed can reach 150 Mbps. As for the test results, the peak download speed has already reached 140.46 Mbps, with an upload speed of 46.55 Mbps. Although TD-LTE can theoretically reach peak upload speeds of 50 Mbps, the 150 Mbps download speed is absolutely unattainable except with the FDD-LTE upgraded version, LTE-Advanced (LTE-A).\ In comparison, Mobile's TD-LTE is significantly weaker in terms of download speed. Upon entering the 4G era, Unicom is already able to maintain a speed advantage over Mobile, which is a tough situation for China Mobile. Furthermore, upgrading Unicom's WCDMA base stations to FDD-LTE base stations is very easy and not costly, making it foreseeable that Unicom will inevitably promote FDD-LTE networks in the future.\ Fortunately, FDD-LTE licenses have not yet been issued, giving Mobile time to properly respond to Unicom's 4G, with the hope that consumers will ultimately benefit.
