OREANDA-NEWS. December 23, 2013. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued "LTE/fourth-generation digital cellular mobile communication services (TD-LTE)" license to China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom. On the same day, ICBC announced cooperation with China Mobile to roll out 4G self-service banking, marking the bank's financial services pioneering into 4G applications.

4G stands for fourth generation wireless communication. Compared with  commercialized 3G network, this technology can better meet demand for high-speed data and high resolution multimedia service in terms of coverage and communication quality. Known as “multimedia mobile communication", 4G wireless multimedia communication service allows voice, data and images to transmit through broadband.

Following Chinese telecom operators’ pace in 4G mobile phone network, ICBC conducted testing on 4G banking services in cities like Hangzhou and Chengdu featuring better 4G network coverage. ICBC ATMs and multimedia self-service devices are connected to 4G network which also carries real-time data and video monitoring traffic. Besides, 4G-enabled portable devices are provided for ICBC customer managers to present product demo at customer’s place, and answer questions or process banking transactions. To ensure security, ICBC uses China's cryptographic algorithm to encrypt all financial data transmitted between users and ICBC. The launch of 4G banking service enables fast deployment of self-service banking and allows ICBC to provide financial services to communities and companies.

In recent years, ICBC has continued to invest in infrastructure required to support electronic banking service and self-service banking such as Internet Banking, Mobile Banking, SMS Banking and self-service devices. As at the end of October, 2013, ICBC has installed 82,300 ATMs and 45,100 multimedia self-service devices across the country. The numbers of ICBC personal customers using Internet Banking, Mobile Banking and Telephone Banking were 161 million, 105 million and 108 million respectively. With over 78% of banking transactions processed through self-service channels, ICBC stands on firm footing to realize operation transformation.