Zeng Jianqiu, a professor at Beijing University of Posts & Telecommunications, said WLAN is a necessary method for telecom operators to meet the rising demand for mobile data.
China has more than 1 billion mobile phone subscribers, according to statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. The country is likely to overtake the United States to become the world's biggest smartphone market this year, according to a report by global data provider International Data Co.
"The network capacity of traditional 2G, 3G and even 4G telecommunication networks is not increasing as quickly as mobile data growth but Wi-Fi can greatly relieve the pressure on operators by diverting a large share of data traffic," Zeng said.
Between 2010 and 2020, the world's mobile data demand will grow by more than 53 times, while the maximum capacity of all mobile networks, no matter how advanced the telecommunication technologies they adopt or how much spectrum is added, can only increase by 25-fold, according to research by Signals Research Group.
Take China Mobile as an example: The company's mobile data traffic demonstrated an annual average growth rate of more than 150 percent over the past few years, said Li Zhengmao, China Mobile's vice-president, during a Beijing conference in October.
"At present, WLAN has diverted close to 70 percent of China Mobile's mobile data traffic," said Lu Jun, an analyst at Rising Securities.
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