China Mobile could roll back 3G networks by 2020

China Mobile could rollback its 3G networks by 2020, shortly after China’s official commercialization of 5G, according to local media.

According to China Mobile’s 5G rollout plan, it will begin testing the networks in 2019 with mass deployment by 2020. This could reportedly coincide with the rollback of its 3G networks.

During the Global Device Summit at the 2018 Mobile World Congress in Shanghai, the company released its guidelines for 5G devices. In it, the company stated that it no longer requires devices to support a 3G standard (TD-SCDMA) that is commonly used in China. The guidelines did specify that devices would need to support a number of LTE standards and GSM.

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