China Unicom, China Telecom and China Mobile, the three largest mobile telecom carriers in China, have begun deploying femtocell networks in the China market, according to industry sources.

China Unicom began deployment of home-use femtocells to enhance coverage of its WCDMA 3G network for data communications in 2009, the sources indicated. Beginning 2011, China Unicom has focused femtocell deployment on offloading fast growing mobile Internet traffic and extended deployment from home users to businesses and schools.

China Telecom has been deploying CDMA2000 femtocells for the same purposes.

While both China Unicom and China Telecom have extensive fixed-line networks to support femtocells on the backhaul, China Mobile operates a relatively small fixed infrastructure, the sources noted.