The Chinese mobile maker is planning to expand its 4G trials from 15 cities in 2012 to 100 cities during 2013 to reach 500 million users.
The Chinese government has revealed its plans to issue 4G licences by late 2013 with the investment from China Mobile part of $30bn capital-expenditure budget.
China Mobile’s investment plans would enhance its support for the 4G standard known as TD-LTE, which is aimed at attract more smartphone makers, telecom carriers and telecom-equipment suppliers to support the standard.
China Mobile reported a 2.7% rise in its profit in 2012 to CNY129.3bn ($20.8bn), a decline from the 5.2% profit growth reported during 2011, while its revenue rose 6.1% to CNY560.4bn ($89.2bn).
The mobile maker is reported to be in ongoing talks with Apple over a deal for selling the iPhone in China, although both parties haven’t reached common ground yet.
Also posing a threat to the company is the WeChat messaging app, China’s Tencent’s popular mobile chat service.
According to reports, the app, which has been adopted by around 30 million users, is said to be reducing the short messaging traffic of the well known mobile operators.
