Overnight China announced it will be issuing a second round of 4G licenses nationwide. The move comes on China’s push to develop its 4G coverage while fostering more competition.
The announcement indicated that China Unicom and China Telecom (CHA, quote) will be the two companies receiving the LTE licenses. China Unicom (CHU, quote) is the second largest carrier in China which will help it compete with China Mobile (CHL, quote) the larger dominate player in the space which amassed more than 100 million 4G users.
Although this a move in the right direction to help both of these two telcos they have a long way to grow. Which translates into the most opportunity for growth. In January China Unicom reported it added just 83k customers a record low for the company