"For true mobile 4G and TD-LTE to be successful, technology needs mass adoption. The economies of scale brought about by China Mobile’s over 600 million subscriber base will see rapid development of the entire TD-LTE ecosystem. This will benefit operators all across the globe and will bring huge benefits to P1 and Malaysia both commercially and technologically," explained Michael Lai, CEO of P1.

Madam Huang Yuhong, Deputy General Manager of China Mobile Research Institute said that Malaysia through P1 with its three years into 4G WiMAX deployment is a valuable knowledge resource in the development of TD-LTE technology. One good instance is the way P1 manages its monthly average subscriber data consumption of 12 Gigabyte. The world will see a data tsunami and this is one exciting area every operator needs to be prepared for.

Madam Huang said, "The massive momentum of TD-LTE will see the early development of the widest selection and most cost effective high performance consumer devices like modems, routers, smart phones and tablets." Research firm Maravedis reported that by the end of 2011, there will be approximately 40 countries represented by 110 operators with 2.5 to 2.6GHz spectrum allocation for TD-LTE. Both P1 and China Mobile firmly believe LTE is the future for mobile broadband. P1 plans to transition its WiMAX network to a dual WiMAX/TD-LTE network as early as the first half of 2012.

Lai added, "The Malaysian Government has been visionary in issuing 4G licenses and we are thankful for this. Today, the country is leading this region in 4G evolution and we will continue to evolve to maintain this leadership position."

In tandem with China Mobile’s TD-LTE promotion activities, P1 was recently accepted into the GTI. The GTI was formed in February this year to drive the early adoption of TD-LTE technology and to propagate TD-LTE’s eco-system. China Mobile is one of the founding operators of the GTI. The other GTI founding companies are Bharti Airtel, Softbank Mobile, Clearwire and Vodafone Group. GTI has a market potential of over half the world’s population. Currently, there are 20 operators in GTI.

Under the agreement, P1 and China Mobile Research Institute will collaborate to:

1. Promote TD-LTE as global standards in general; and for early adoption in South-East Asia in specific, through
   regional and local activities,
2. Promote Global TD-LTE Initiative (GTI) throughout South-East Asia
3. Promote the jump-start of TD-LTE deployment in Malaysia

Lai and Huang formalized the partnership agreement witnessed by guests of honour Deputy Minister of Information, Communications and Culture Malaysia YB Dato’ Joseph Salang Gandum and Charge D’Affaires, Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Malaysia; HE Chen Dehai. The P1-China Mobile technology partnership also promotes bilateral cooperation between the two nations.