China Mobile, the world’s largest operator with 824 million mobile connections, aims to double its 4G user base next year to 500 million.

The operator had 248 million 4G connections at the end of Q3, up from 107 million in January, which represents 30 per cent of its user base, according to GSMA Intelligence. The market leader accounts for more than 80 per cent of the country’s 4G connections.

It added nearly 20 million 4G connections in October alone, with most of the additions migrating from 2G and 3G plans.

The company plans to roll out an additional 300,000 4G base stations next year, China Mobile’s Li Huidi told China Daily. It has already installed one million base stations nationwide.

Li said it has sold more than 256 million 4G smartphones this year through its own retailing channels and partners and plans to sell 330 million 4G units next year.

The country’s second largest operator, China Unicom, had just 11 million 4G connections at the end of September (less than 4 per cent of its user base), while number three China Telecom had 43.7 million 4G connections (22.5 per cent of its total).