China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has established a working group to research fifth-generation (5G) mobile networking, according to Mo Wan, a leading expert at the China Academy of Telecommunication Research.

China's 4G TD-LTE user base will reach 60 million in 2016 and account for 40 percent of worldwide TD-LTE users, Mo said.

China Mobile, the active advocator of TD-LTE, plans to launch 4G wireless services in more than 100 cities across the country by the end of the year, and would grant access to the services to some 500 million people across the country.

The carrier plans to have 200,000 base stations supporting the world's largest 4G TD-LTE telecoms network by the end of this year.