From ChinaWeb:
TELECOMS
Unicom's plan to phase in CDMA unchanged
Jun 1 2000 5:18PM
Homeway
China Unicom, China's competition-conscious second largest telecommunications company, has not given up on building a mobile communication network using CDMA technology, the China Daily reported Thursday.
"We have not received any official document to call off the construction and deployment of a CDMA network in China," said a spokesman with China Unicom. (CDMA stands for code division multiple access.)
The spokesman, who declined to be identified, said the CDMA project is still on track but refused to provide more details.
Early this year, China Unicom announced it would probably provide CDMA service this summer. And it has finished choosing CDMA equipment supplier candidates for government review.
Recent remarks from senior Information Industry Ministry officials confirmed that a CDMA network is in the works. Information Industry Vice-Minister Zhang Cunjiang said last week that the government will continue to help China Unicom to create a competitive mobile phone market centering on American CDMA technology. The market is now dominated by China Mobile, which use European GSM technology.
"The biggest support from the government is to solely authorize China Unicom to construct and operate the CDMA network," said Zhang.
A US-based Associated Press report said China Unicom told industry analysts at a briefing on Monday it will not adopt the CDMA wireless telephone standard and will instead stick with a competing one.
Shares of Qualcomm, the biggest potential beneficiary of China's CDMA deployment, fell as much as 9% in early trading Tuesday after a more than 40% drop over the past two weeks.
China Unicom served 5.2 million mobile subscribers by the end of last year, compared with the 40 million belonging to China Mobile.
The company expects the CDMA network to compete with China Mobile. It plans to go public later this month in Hong Kong and New York.
A February agreement with Qualcomm, the main CDMA technology copyright holder, paved the way for China Unicom to endorse the technology nationwide. However, a series of construction delays cast doubts on the cost and timing of CDMA.
Technically speaking, the US-favored CDMA system is the same as the European GSM system, which is widely used in China. But industrial experts say CDMA deployment may come too late. GSM and CDMA network are narrow-band networks. The next kind of network, due in 2003, will enable much faster wireless transfers for things such as video images and other multimedia.
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It's encouraging this local (Chinese) source still makes references to the February agreement with Q.
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