China plans to issue a second batch of 4G licenses nationwide this week to boost 4G development and heat up competition among the three telecommunications carriers, industry officials said yesterday.

The FDD-LTE licenses will be issued to China Unicom and China Telecom on Thursday, Zou Xueyong, secretary-general of the China Virtual Network Operator Alliance, said on his Sina Weibo account.

The telecom carriers declined to comment on the issue yesterday.

China Unicom, the country's second-biggest mobile carrier, jumped by the 10 percent daily cap to close at 5.34 yuan (86 US cents) on the Shanghai stock market yesterday.

The upcoming issuance of the 4G FDD-LTE licenses nationwide will help China Unicom and China Telecom expand business in the country and challenge China Mobile's dominance, analysts said.

China had previously issued the first batch of 4G licenses to the three carriers at the end of 2013, based on the China-developed TD-LTE technology.

The FDD-LTE, which caters to China Unicom and China Telecom's existing networks compared with the TD-LTE, will help the two smaller telcos to catch up with China Mobile, which has more than 100 million 4G users, analysts said.

China Unicom added 83,000 users in January, a record low, to have 299 million users in total, only one third of China Mobile's 838 million users.

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