China will speed up the development of TD-LTE (Time Division-Long Term Evolution), the nation's fourth-generation (4G) telecommunications technology, during the next two years, an official with the country's top economic planning agency said Wednesday.

China will strengthen its research and development on TD-LTE chips, terminals and test instruments, expand the TD-LTE trial scale, speed up the commercial use of TD-LTE and promote the globalization of the technology, Zhang Xiaoqiang, deputy minister in charge of the National Development and Reform Commission, said at the Mobile Asia Expo in Shanghai.

TD-LTE can substantially lower bandwidth costs and allow faster broadband wireless services than the current 3G network.

The technology and Europe's FDD-LTE are the two major 4G standards set by the International Telecommunication Union. FDD-LTE has already been put into commercial use, accounting for four-fifths of the global LTE market.

As China's self-developed 3G TD-SCDMA standard has missed the opportunity to see large-scale application outside the country, China hopes that the TD-LTE technology can become a globally accepted standard.

"The next two years will be a golden time for the development of TD-LTE. We cannot afford to miss it, or we may not have such an opportunity again," Zhang said.

China Mobile, the operator of the 4G technology, has started offering TD-LTE services in the cities of Beijing, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Shenzhen and Guangzhou. The company plans to build over 20,000 base stations in 10 cities this year.

(Xinhua News Agency June 20, 2012)