Friday 12 December 2008

China to Issue 3G Licenses as Early as This Month

China will issue third-generation mobile phone licenses as early as this month and expects companies to spend 200 billion yuan ($30 billion) on installing equipment, the industry minister said Friday.

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Guanyu said...

China to Issue 3G Licenses as Early as This Month

The Associated Press
12 December 2008

BEIJING: China will issue third-generation mobile phone licenses as early as this month and expects companies to spend 200 billion yuan ($30 billion) on installing equipment, the industry minister said Friday.

China has the world’s biggest population of mobile phone users and adoption of 3G — which has been long delayed — was eagerly anticipated by equipment suppliers, which are seeing demand elsewhere decline due to the global financial crisis.

“The 3G licenses will be issued either later this year or early next year,” Li Yizhong, whose ministry regulates telecoms, said at a news conference.

Third-generation mobile phone technology supports Web surfing, video downloads and other added services. Its adoption in China is expected to boost demand for mobile service and spur growth of new services.

China’s mobile phone market has grown to 650 million accounts, Li said.

Foreign suppliers such as Nokia Siemens Networks and Sony-Ericsson will be competing with fast-growing Chinese rivals Huawei Technologies Co. and ZTE Corp. to sell switching gear, base stations and other technology.

Li confirmed reports by state media that China will use both global 3G standards and a Chinese-designed standard.

Global standards WCDMA and CDMA-2000 will be assigned to China Unicom Corp. and China Telecom Ltd., respectively, while the homegrown TD-SCDMA will be assigned to China Mobile Corp., Li said.

Beijing put off awarding 3G licenses while it worked on developing its own standard and restructured the telecoms industry.

China’s effort to create its own standard fueled tensions with Washington, which worried that Beijing would force carriers to adopt the Chinese system, possibly shutting out foreign suppliers.

Regulators promised to let carriers pick their own standards. But there was no indication why China Mobile would decide on its own to adopt the unproven Chinese system, which was still in development and has never been used elsewhere.

Beijing reorganized China’s state-owned carriers in to three large groups to spur competition. The surging popularity of mobile services propelled China Mobile to grow into the world’s biggest phone carrier by number of subscribers while fixed-line companies saw revenue growth flatten.