The State Council executive meeting on July 12, 2013 proposed a demand for enlarging 3G network coverage, improving services quality, and promoting the issuing of 4G licenses within this year. Investment in base station devices is the most important part in the network construction input (usually accounts for 30 to 50%). China Mobile Communications Corporation’s investment in 4G base station devices construction will increase by more than 50% in 2013. Moreover, the issue of licenses will promote three telecoms operators to fully invest in 4G construction in 2014.
Base station devices investment will boost the recovery of high-count layer PCB. The main differences between 4G and 3G lie in their spectrum utilization efficiency, upstream and downstream rates. Printed circuit boards with more than 8 layers are suitable for being used in high-frequency substrates whose frequencies can reach 100 megabytes or even 10G. They are mainly used in primary communication devices and high-end servers, and are expected to be the first to benefit from the 4G investment. The leading enterprises in PCB research and development areas will benefit first from 4G investment and ushered in sales volume increase.
Fastprint, one of the leading PCB research and development enterprises, boasts high-count layer board technology to meet the demand for high-quality telecommunications and is able to produce rigid boards up to 40 layers and rigid-flex boards up to 20 layers. The proportion of its high-end communication boards is much higher than the average of industry. Fastprint will have greater advantages in the future. The demand of leading enterprises in telecommunication industry for high-end printed circuit boards will account for 70 percent in the future. The leading PCB sampling enterprises are expected to achieve high return in the stage of devices research and development , earlier than the other companies.