China Mobile has applied for an FDD-LTE licence and has planned network trials that integrate both TDD and FDD 4G technology.

China Mobile chairman Xi Guohua said it wants an FDD license so it can use the spectrum if TDD spectrum runs out, C114.net said. The country’s largest operator also wants to demonstrate to the operators outside of China how the two technologies can be integrated. It plans to carry out indoor and outdoor 4G tests in both cities and rural areas this year.

Xi, however, said China Mobile is confident about TD-LTE after its rapid network rollout last year, claiming that TDD’s asymmetric design is more suitable for mobile internet services.

China Telecom and China Unicom were finally awarded nationwide FDD-LTE licences by the country’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology at the end of February.

The number two and three operators in the country, which until now have only had a licence to run so-called hybrid FDD-TDD trials in 56 cities, have been at a huge disadvantage to China Mobile, which has been able to deploy 4G TD-LTE base stations across most of China and now has more than 100 million 4G connections.

China Telecom and China Unicom together only have around 10 million LTE connections.