Data services - the focus of intense competition in Shanghai
EMC - Close
6/20/2002
Mobile subscribers in Shanghai generated a significant uptake of mobile data services in 2001, particularly benefiting SHMC. SMS usage at SHMC reached 1.1 billion messages in 2001 alone, among which nearly 20% were generated from its Monternet service (which stands for Mobile Internet). More significantly, SHMC's mobile data revenues accounted for 3% of its total revenues in 2001 well above the national average, according to the company.
Shanghai was one of the first three cities, together with Beijing and Jilin, which had established SMS interconnection by 10 February 2002, ahead of the national interconnection deadline on 1 May 2002. On the second day of interconnection (the eve of the Chinese New Year), a total of 1.5 million messages were sent across SHMC and SHU platforms. Currently, an average of 800,000 messages are being sent every day across the platforms of both operators, according to local reports.
However, users of SHMC's Shenzhouxing prepaid service cannot send SMS messages to Unicom subscribers for technical reasons. China Mobile has been doing trials in six locations (not including Shanghai) to interconnect Shenzhouxing users with Unicom's network, and SHMC expects to follow suit after the completion of these trials.
With cellular penetration already very high, Shanghai Mobile is focusing on developing data services to raise the ARPU of existing users. Through a multitude of outdoor bulletin board adverts along major streets in downtown Shanghai, SHMC is aggressively promoting the Monternet brand. Following it success in Guangdong, Monternet is developing very fast in Shanghai (as mentioned above, it currently generates nearly 20% of SMS traffic). SHMC has been working with around 50 service providers to provide a variety of services over its network. These include stock trading and downloading ringtones, as well as providing access to the mobile data services of companies such as linktone, any8, Newpalm, Sina, Sohu and Netease.
SHMC is seeking to further boost Monternet with the recent launch of GPRS on 17 May 2002. Ahead of this national launch, the company had started GPRS commercial trials on 9 July 2001 (providing free usage of GPRS), and there were 2,078 trial users at the end of 2001 according to statistics provided to the MII by China Mobile. SHMC is offering promotions for this service in conjunction with handset vendors such as Motorola, Nokia and Siemens. One promotion promises subscribers signing up between 17 May and 17 November 2002 free voice credits amounting to twice the preceding month's GPRS usage charges if they pay three months of the GPRS monthly fee up front.
On a separate front, SHMC is planning to launch a branded wireless LAN service soon called Mobile Office targeting business users.
With its attention focused on promoting its CDMA network, SHU did not upgrade its GSM network to GPRS. Instead, SHU began trials on CDMA 1x in partnership with Shanghai Bell during November 2001. SHU expects to put CDMA 1x on commercial trial during the World Cup in June 2002. SHU currently offers a mobile data service called Uni-Info which offers news, ringtone downloads, mobile lottery and other downloads. These are offered in partnership with SPs such as eastday.com, stockstar and the Shanghai Welfare Lottery Ticket Release Centre. Unlike SHMC, however, Shanghai Unicom is not promoting the Uni-Info brand very aggressively. SHU also recently launched a series of SMS-based interactive football games and lucky draws on the occasion of the World Cup (winners will be awarded a free CDMA handset).
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