At least half a million base stations will be installed or upgraded for TD-LTE services by the end of 2016, according to a new forecast from ABI Research. The market research firm claims that little more than two years ago nearly every WiMAX operator, together with those with unpaired TDD frequency spectrum, was planning to deploy WiMAX 2. Today, says Aditya Kaul, ABI's director of mobile networks, "almost all of them have switched plans and are deploying TD-LTE instead." The survey highlights China Mobile as being the early promoter of TD-LTE technology, notably as an LTE evolution path for its 3G network based on TD-SCDMA technology. However, ABI claims that the "600-pound gorilla" in TD-LTE is still China, and in particular, China Mobile. This company started its second phase of the TD-LTE Large Scale Trial Initiative (LSTI) in December 2010 which will run until June 2012. Release