CHINA will accelerate the development of a 4G network nationwide to cover 100 cities and also upgrade a network to handle low-cost and big-capacity voice communications, participants said during a mobile communications show yesterday.

China Mobile, the world's biggest telco, will extend trials of the 4G networks in 100 cities in the country by the end of this year, up from 15 cities now. The cities include Shanghai, Hangzhou and Beijing.

The telco will establish 200,000 4G base stations by then, a tenfold rise from the current level, Xi Guohua, China Mobile's chairman, said during a conference of the Mobile Asia Expo which opened yesterday in Shanghai.

China Mobile will also establish a national VoLTE (voice over long term evolution) network, which allows people call each other on an upgraded 4G network at lower cost of up to 70 percent off.

China Mobile adopts the home-developed TD-LTE (time division-LTE) 4G technology, which is less commercially mature compared with overseas 4G technology. But chip design firms have developed chips that are compatible with both 4G technologies.

Meanwhile, overseas firms have also launched mobile phone models supporting TD-LTE.