China to launch 4G service in 2014: state media

China plans to roll out commercial "fourth generation" mobile phone technology nationwide in 2014, state media said Friday, citing the country's top telecom regulator.

The remarks by Miao Wei, minister of industry and information technology, marked the first time China has given a timetable for the adoption of 4G, which provides faster broadband wireless services, the China Daily said.

China has been pushing for its home-grown 4G standard, known as TD-LTE, to be accepted as a global standard.

TD-LTE is being tested in seven cities and will go into commercial use "when the technology is mature", China Mobile chairman Wang Jianzhou was quoted by the newspaper as saying last week.

The UN's International Telecommunications Union (ITU) accepted TD-LTE in October as a candidate to be designated 4G and is watching the tests by China Mobile and its partners to see if it meets 4G transmission standards.

China Mobile, the world's largest mobile phone operator, said late last year that a number of Chinese and foreign telecom equipment makers would participate in the tests of its 4G candidate, including China's ZTE Corp, Huawei Technologies, Finnish-German Nokia Siemens and Swedish group Ericsson.