China's third generation mobile technology (3G) users will reach 150 million by 2011, the Shanghai Securities News reported Friday, citing Wen Kuming, an official with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

3G network will cover all cities above prefecture level and most counties, towns, major highways and scenic areas, and 400,000 3G base stations will be built by 2011, Wen said.

"China directly invested 160.9 million yuan in 3G in 2009. Indirect investment stood at 589 billion yuan and 325,000 base stations were completed," Wen added.

China Mobile Vice President Lu Xiangdong said the company plans to input 45 billion yuan to build the fourth phase of the TD-SCDMA network in 2010 and its TD base station number will double, to 200,000.

China Telecom Deputy General Manager Yang Jie said the company expected its 3G subscribers to exceed 10 million by the end of this year.

So far, China has adopted three different 3G standards for commercial use: a home-developed standard, TD-SCDMA, developed and operated by China Mobile, and two international standards, WCDMA and CDMA2000.