China Mobile ready for advance

Builder of the world's largest 4G network lays solid foundation for the upcoming 5G era

A typical photo of a successful Chinese businessmen in the 1980s often featured a brick-sized prototype mobile phone. Such phones were too big to conceal in the palm of one's hand and could do nothing except make and receive calls. But it highlights that when mobile communication services were first brought to China, they were positioned as a luxury service.

After decades of development, however, smartphones are becoming omnipresent in the country, and can help users do almost everything from buying movie tickets to booking medical appointment. Behind the popularity of mobile services across China stands a company that has also evolved from a little player into the world's largest telecom operator: China Mobile Communications Group Co Ltd.