BARCELONA, Spain — China Mobile Communications Corp, parent of the world's largest telecom carrier, will add three Chinese cities to a large-scale trial of its fourth generation (4G) telecommunication technology this year, according to the company's president.

Li Yue, the president of China Mobile Communications Corp, who was here attending the Mobile World Congress, said three new cities, Beijing, Tianjin and Qingdao, will be added, increasing the total number of cities involved in the 4G TD-LTE large scale trial to nine.

China Mobile started the first phase of the trial in six major Chinese cities in January 2011. The second phase began at the end of last year.

"We hope to step up the pace in deploying TD-LTE network in China," Li said.

China Mobile plans to have more than 20,000 TD-LTE base stations in the nine cities by year-end, Li added. "If the expanded large-scale trial is successful this year, China Mobile will raise the number of TD-LTE base stations in China to more than 200,000 in 2013," he said.

Hangzhou and Shenzhen may be the first two Chinese cities to have full coverage of TD-LTE networks in their urban areas this year, Li said.