On the sidelines of the currently-underway annual session of China's national legislature on Tuesday, Miao Wei - China's Minister of Industry and Information Technology - revealed that the government will begin handing out licences to telecom operators for providing fourth-generation (4G) mobile services this year.

According to state media reports, Miao said that he was hopeful that 4G licences will be issued by the government to telecom operators by the end of 2013; ahead of the Ministry's earlier projected 2014 timeline for the issue of licences that will enable telecom operators to offer high-speed 4G network in the country.

About the likelihood of the government's 4G licencing process to commence this year, Miao said that even though research and development (R&D) of 4G technologies has witnessed noteworthy breakthroughs in China, the country still faces some restrictions in the commercial use of these technologies.

Nonetheless, two cities in east China's Zhejiang Province rolled out a 4G mobile phone network for commercial use on a trial basis last month; thereby heralding the arrival of new age of high-speed mobile Internet in the country.

Meanwhile, highlighting China's needs to accelerate base station construction and provide more terminal products, Miao said: "We will promulgate supporting policies at an appropriate time to guide the construction and development of the 4G network."