Heilongjiang has formally begun to use 4G technologies after a half-year trial operation in 13 cities across the province in Northeast China on July 9.

By the first half of this year, Heilongjiang Mobile Co has put 8,000 base stations into use. The second stage of the 4G network project has now been started, aiming to build 15,000 base stations in total by the end of this year.

Mobile subscribers in the provincial capital Harbin can upgrade their 4G SIM card for free in local service centers. Harbin has more than 1,000 4G base stations at present, covering key areas in the city, such as busy commercial districts and transportation hubs.

The next phase will focus on some counties and townships. Among them, office buildings of governmental departments, high-end hotels, as well as airport and railway stations will be covered by 4G networks overall.

4G refers to TD-LTE. It is an international mainstream 4G standard led by China, which boasts higher speed and lower time delay. According to the test, the average download speed can reach 30 MB per second and a maximum of 120 MB per second.