Residents of Pingtan county, Fujian province, are set to enjoy the fourth generation, or 4G, mobile Internet service in the first half of 2014.

Pingtan is one of the 4G pilot cities in the cross-Straits cooperation program, and the authorities set up a special team responsible for the installment and coordination of the latest wireless technology.

As of Dec 5, China Mobile has built 81 4G base stations, with the 4G signals covering the administrative committee of the Pingtan Comprehensive Pilot Zone, the Chengguan district as well as parts of the Aoqian Marine Passenger Terminal.

The company will open 41 more 4G stations by the end of the year, the team leader said.

China's other two giant telecom carriers, China Unicom and China Telecom, said they are also busy with 4G Internet construction. China Unicom said its 4G network will cover the urban area and most of suburban towns, and China Telecom said that it will start to test the 4G network in the first quarter next year.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued 4G licenses to the three major telecom operators on Dec 4 , starting the process for the country's 1.2 billion mobile subscribers to have a higher-speed Internet access in their palms.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said the 4G network features faster speed and a lower data traffic cost, and is expected to help meet mobile phone users' requirements for high-speed Internet surfing services and help boost mobile Internet applications, such as mobile transport and logistics.

The Pingtan Times, the main newspaper of the Pingtan government, tested China Mobile's 4G speed at one of its franchise stores on Xihang Road, and said a 4G mobile phone is able to play any online video instantly without buffering. It also took only several seconds for a 4G mobile phone to download a 7.5-megabyte software, while a 3G phone has to wait for "dozens of seconds".

The download speed of the 4G network is reportedly 100 Mbps - or 2000 times that of dial-up network - and clients who wish to become 4G users do not need to change their phone numbers or reapply for an Internet access service. However, a China Mobile employee said they do have to change the USIM card (Universal Subscriber Identity Module), terminal devices as well as the 4G Internet-surfing package which is more cost-effective than 3G.

Edited by Chen Zhilin and Niva Whyman