Telecommunication News
- 3G mobile licenses to be issued very soon: minister
Date: 6-Dec-2006 Sources: (Shenzhen Daily)
THE government may issue long-awaited licenses to build third generation (3G) mobile phone networks 'very soon,'China's top telecoms official said.
'I cannot provide a specific timetable but it could happen very soon,'Wang Xudong, minister of information industry, was quoted by the China Daily as saying.
He emphasized China's promise of enabling operators to offer 3G services during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing was 'well-founded and feasible.'
Some industry observers believe licenses could be awarded in the first quarter of next year, the China Daily report said, adding that leading Chinese companies have invested heavily in 3G-related research and development.
'Government bodies are studying how many licenses, three or four, are needed,'Wang said.
China's own technology for 3G phones is ready for large-scale commercial use, the Financial Times cited ZTE, the country's second largest telecom equipment maker, as saying Monday.
Equipment based on the government-backed TD-SCDMA standard for 3G telecoms services could now operate comparably with that of the rival European-led WCDMA standard and the U.S.-favored CDMA2000, ZTE president Yin Yimin said.
China will let telecommunications operators choose the 3G mobile-phone standard they deploy, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Monday, also citing the minister Wang Xudong.
When asked about possible restructuring of China's telecoms industry for 3G licensing, Wang said: 'I haven't studied or contemplated the matter.'
Wang's remarks reiterate the government's position that it will let the country's telecoms operators choose their own 3G technological standard.
The comments also appear to be aimed at countering the view in the industry that the government favors a locally developed 3G technology called TD-SCDMA (Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access).
China endorsed TD-SCDMA as a national standard in January, ahead of the two other 3G standards, Wideband CDMA and CDMA2000.
The introduction of 3G services in China could help domestic fixed-line and mobile operators increase revenue from data services and boost sales at equipment suppliers, but China hasn't yet said how many licenses it will issue.
China has two mobile operators, China Mobile and China Unicom, and two fixed-line carriers, China Telecom and China Netcom.
Regarding how many licenses will be issued, Wang said the matter concerns market competition, according to the Xinhua report.
Some analysts also expect China Unicom, which now operates both CDMA and GSM networks, could be split and merged with other operators, if the government issues three licenses.
Xinhua cited Wang as saying the four Chinese operators are listed overseas, and such matters should be decided by the companies' boards.
Analysts had expected China to issue 3G licenses this year, but officials at some telecommunications equipment makers now appear to expect 3G licenses to be issued next year, particularly earlier in the year.
China has been testing TD-SCDMA in five major cities - Beijing, Shanghai, the eastern coastal city of Qingdao, the northern city of Baoding and the southern city of Xiamen - and widened the trials to include more end-users in early November.
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