Lucent, Citic to Develop CDMA Technology in China
--From AOL News this morning.-- Cooters
Beijing, Feb. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Lucent Technologies Inc., the No. 1 phone equipment maker, joined China's largest investment firm to develop digital mobile phone technology in China, as more foreign companies seek to increase their share of the growing mobile phone market there.
Lucent agreed to form a joint venture with China International Trust and Investment Corp., or Citic, to develop technologies based on the U.S.-developed code division multiple access standard for next-generation cell phones.
Citic ``signed an agreement with Lucent to develop CDMA,' said Citic Chairman Larry Yung at a press conference in Hong Kong. He did not provide further details.
Mobile phone usage among China's 1.3 billion people is still low compared with advanced nations. However, the country's undeveloped fixed line telephone network has contributed to the rapid growth in mobile phones, with user numbers expected to rise 63 percent this year to 70 million.
Citic Pacific Ltd., Citic's Hong Kong-listed unit, is increasing its stake in China's telecom business. The company said it would join with Citic Beijing and Larry Yung to buy a 32,000-kilometer optical fiber network being built by the People's Liberation Army.
The Hong Kong-listed arm also acquired a 3 percent stake in China United Telecommunications, or Unicom, the no. 2 telephone company, which said late last year it will build a CDMA network for 9 million users by June this year.
``The agreement with Lucent is connected clearly with Citic's recently announced interest in Unicom,' said Mark Simpson, head of research at Nomura International Hong Kong Ltd. ``Lucent and Citic have a client already in Unicom.'
CDMA technology got a late start in China enabling GSM, or the global system for mobile telecommunications, a rival European standard, to become dominant. China agreed only last March to open its market to suppliers of CDMA equipment as a concession to help speed up negotiations with the U.S. over China's entry to the World Trade Organization.
Earlier this year, Qualcomm Inc., which holds a number of CDMA-based patents, said it agreed to license its cellular-phone technology to Chinese phone-making companies.
Feb/15/2000 4:51 |
