China Mobile 4G network set to be biggest in world

Xi did not disclose the possible launch date of 5G service. Analysts said they believe its commercial use in China is years - if not a decade - away as the previous technology only kicked off in the country this year.

Local research on next-generation telecom technologies is likely to receive government support.

630m mobile subscribers, and counting 

The Asia-Pacific region now accounts for half of the world's mobile subscribers and will remain one of the world's fastest-growing mobile markets through 2020 and beyond, according to a new report.

There were 1.7 billion unique mobile subscribers in the region at the end of 2013, accounting for half of the 3.4 billion global subscriber base, according to the GSM Association.

The number of subscribers in the region is expected to grow by 5.5 percent a year until reaching 2.4 billion in 2020.

Total mobile connections in Asia Pacific stood at 3.4 billion at the end of 2013 and are forecast to increase to 4.8 billion by 2020. China, the world's largest mobile market, was home to 630 million unique mobile subscribers at the end of 2013.

There were 1.13 billion active mobile connections in China at the end of 2013, meaning that millions of Chinese subscribers use more than one SIM cards or device; there were 1.79 SIM cards per unique subscriber in China at the end of 2013.

The study also found that some 500 million Chinese citizens had subscribed to mobile Internet services at the end of 2013. China's remaining 130 million subscribers used their mobile connections only for placing voice calls and sending text messages.

It is estimated that the total number of Chinese Internet users stood at just over 600 million in 2013, meaning that more than 80 percent access the Internet via mobile.

Over two-thirds (69 percent) of Chinese mobile Internet subscribers accessed Internet services via mobile broadband networks (3G/4G), with the rest using 2G, according to the research.

It is forecast there will be almost 900 million 4G mobile connections in the country by the end of 2020, up from around 100 million in 2014.

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