China Mobile's Shanghai branch has launched a 4G, or fourth generation, network at the World Expo site in the city, which is 20 times faster than 3G networks, the telco said Thursday.

During the World Expo 2010, the 4G network will support features such as high-definition video broadcast, remote monitoring and high-speed Internet access services, Shanghai Mobile said.

"It will be the first time that the next generation technology is put to practical use on a large scale in China," Shanghai Mobile said.

China Mobile adopts TD-LTE (long term evolution) technology, an evolved technology from its 3G TD-SCDMA (time division-synchronous code division multiple access) technology.

Shanghai Mobile will complete building the indoor LTE signal coverage by the end of this month and it plans to launch LTE data cards later.

By the end of December, China Mobile had 5.51 million TD-SCDMA users, the company said.

In January last year, China issued 3G licenses to three telcom operators.