Thursday's Top Stories
China postpones network project
Compiled by CBS MarketWatch
Last Update:12:41 AM ET Feb 24, 2000
BEIJING (CBS.MW) -- Less than a week after China announced it
would deploy a new type of mobile communications relying heavily on
U.S. technology, the government has postponed the process indefinitely.
The delay order, which hasn't been made public, stunned foreign firms,
some of which had already bid on the project that would build a national
mobile-phone network. Executives at several multinational companies say
their bids to supply equipment aren't being accepted. Some speculate the
move is a bargaining tactic as the U.S. Congress prepares to debate
whether to support China's entry into the World Trade Organization.
"We've been told that our discussions will be delayed," said Michael
Ricks, president of Ericsson China Co., a subsidiary of Telefon AB L.M.
Ericcson (ERICY: news, msgs), the Swedish telecom giant. He said
officials from the Chinese operator of the planned network told him the
order had come from the government. "There's no commercial reason
why that would be, so that leaves political," Ricks said. China's
second-biggest phone company, China United Telecommunications
Corp., or China Unicom, announced last week that it would build a
mobile network using CDMA, or code division multiple access,
technology licensed from Qualcomm (QCOM: news, msgs) of the U.S.
Many big technology companies had cheered the move, which promised
lucrative supply contracts in one of the world's fastest-growing
mobile-phone markets. The Wall Street Journal
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