China Mobile blasts from zero to 100M 4G subscribers in just 14 months

China Mobile now has just over 100 million 4G subscribers, according to the newest data from the company. The major milestone comes 14 months after the nation’s top telco switched on China’s first 4G network.

China Mobile’s newest 4G figure counts subscribers added by the end of January. The telco titan has so far set up more than 700,000 4G base stations covering over one billion people, the China Daily reports. The firm aims to have 250 million 4G users by the end of this year.

This is the growth so far:

China has more than half a billion 3G subscribers, but that number will decline slowly as people shift over to similarly priced 4G data plans.

Rival telcos China Unicom and China Telecom are not yet revealing their number of 4G subscribers in their customary monthly reports.

Apple added support for China Mobile’s 4G network in its iPhones in January 2014, but it’s cheaper 4G-enabled phones from brands like Xiaomi, Coolpad, and Lenovo that will drive a greater number of people to switch to 4G.

See: Everyone in China loves their smartphones, but people are using surprisingly little data each month

(Source: China Daily)