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HONG KONG (June 18) XINHUA - Qualcomm Incorporated, pioneer and world leader of Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) digital
technology, has expressed its confidence and optimism about the prospect of the development of CDMA in China.
The access of China United Telecommunications Corporation ( China Unicom) into the CDMA Development Group, a global association of
CDMA products and service providers, and its plan to deploy CDMA networks in China is very encouraging, said Anil Kripalani, vice president of
the Planning and International Administration department of Qualcomm.
Qualcomm is very interested in the Chinese market and likes to help China Unicom achieve its goal of developing CDMA network in China,
Kripalani told Xinhua during the 4th CDMA World Congress workshops held in Hong Kong between June 14-18.
China Unicom announced during the congress that the CDMA network construction will start in 1999 with the capacity of 2.6 million subscribers.
By the end of 2000, the CDMA network in China will reach the capacity of 10 million covering 250 cities and after 2000, a new capacity of 10
million will be added annually to the CDMA network. By the end of 2003, the network will reach the capacity of 40 million with as many as 28
million actual subscribers.
Based in San Diego, the United States, Qualcomm is holders of many CDMA technologies and many major wireless telecommunications
companies in the world are licensees of its technology.
Qualcomm is now talking with some potential Chinese partners for its localization in China, Kripalani said. It will continue to offer technology to
China in order to make it able to take advantage of the latest CDMA technology.
The company is now seeking opportunities to set up joint ventures in China to manufacture its handsets. Qualcomm's handsets have entered the
5th generation and the company is a leading manufacturer of CDMA chips, which are used by many CDMA network and handsets
manufacturers.
Compared with GSM, CDMA networks and handsets have advantages in larger capacity, wider coverage, better voice quality and low fail calls
rate, Kripalani said.
Larger capacity and wider coverage can make it possible for setting up as little as base stations to serve as many as subscribers and through this
the operation cost will be reduced, he said.
Also the transmission power of CDMA handsets are lower and that is good for environment, he added. The 3rd generation (3G) wireless
telecommunications, which connect mobile phones to Internet, will be based on the CDMA technology, Kripalani said.
The CDMA networks are easy to be upgraded by changing some chips, Kripalani said. The existing equipment do not need to be thrown away
and through this way, the operation cost will be further reduced, he said.
CDMA is the fastest growing wireless technology in the world. Among the total 30 million subscribers, 18 million of them are in Asia Pacific
region. Enditem 18/06/99 15:18 GMT
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