China, which has more than 600 million 4G users, is starting to face a mobile spectrum crunch.

Kan Runtian, deputy director general of China’s Radio Regulations Bureau, said at a recent conference that the country’s spectrum supply is “becoming increasingly acute”, C114.net reported. The bureau is part of the Ministry of Industry and Information (MIIT).

The ITU estimates China will face a shortage of 1,100MHz of public mobile spectrum in just four years.

Kan said the country will expand its spectrum resources incrementally, improve the efficiency of spectrum and continue to support dynamic spectrum sharing.

A particular problem is the undeveloped high-frequency bands, which create new requirements and challenges for radio management, he said, adding that China’s approach in the 2.2-2.3GHz and 5.1-5.2GHz bands is static sharing.

Market leader China Mobile, with 450 million 4G subscribers, has seen average data per mobile user more than double to 589Mb a month over the past year, while 4G usage rose 32 per cent to 928Mb per month year-on-year in H1.

China Mobile plans to have 1.4 million 4G base stations by the end of the year; China Telecom aims to have 850,000.