BEIJING, Feb. 27 -- China's telecom authority on Friday granted 4G licenses to two major telecom operators to launch services using an international standard in the country's latest effort to improve mobile networks.

China Telecom and China Unicom were permitted to offer services based on LTE FDD technology after large-scale testing since last June, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

LTE FDD was the first external 4G technology introduced to China. The MIIT issued 4G licenses to China's three telecom giants at the end of 2013 allowing them to use the homegrown TD-LTE standard.

China Mobile, the country's largest telecom provider in terms of user numbers, currently leads in 4G business.