China Unicom upgrades plan
Date: 06/04/2000
Page: 1
Author: WANG CHUANDONG, Business Weekly staff
China Unicom, reaffirming its proposed CDMA project, plans to modify its
already-designed construction proposal from a narrow-band mobile system to a
third-generation CDMA 2000 system.
It has been widely rumoured that China Unicom would cancel the long-delayed CDMA
project because of timing problems and costs.
A senior official from China Unicom told Business Weekly that the company will never
give up the CDMA project, its best shot at competing with China Mobile.
"The timing of constructing a narrow-band CDMA system has become unfavourable, so
we plan to build a Wide-band CDMA (WCDMA) 2000 network," said the official,
who declined to be identified.
The company had planned to provide CDMA services this summer. The nationwide
mobile network, with a designed capacity of 50 million lines, will require investment of
more than 100 billion yuan (US$12.1 billion).
"We have to minimize the risks of such a huge investment," said the official.
The expected project adjustment means that two years of preparations for a CDMA
project will be shifted to serve the new goal.
Although a February agreement with Qualcomm, a US-based telecom firm, could be
cancelled, the company is still expected to be a big winner in the deal.
Experts say that intellectual property rights (IPRs) to more than 50 per cent of the
technologies used in CDMA 2000 systems are held by Qualcomm.
On a technological level, the US-favoured CDMA (code division multiple access)
system is the same as Europe's GSM (global system of mobile communications), which
is widely used in China.
Industrial experts said the timing of CDMA deployment is poor because of the
anticipated introduction of third-generation of mobile communications (3G).
There are two main 3G technological standards, the CDMA-supported CDMA 2000
and the GSM-generated WCDMA.
In contrast to narrow-band GSM and CDMA networks, 3G telecom systems, which
are likely to be commercialized in 2003, will enable much faster wireless transfers than
current systems for things such as video images and other multimedia.
Song Junde, a professor from Beijing University of Posts & Telecommunications
(BUPT), said it would take at least two years for China Unicom to begin a CDMA
2000 project because a CDMA transitional system will enter the market next year.
"China Unicom has gained an unparalleled position in China's future mobile
telecom market, no matter whether with a narrow-band CDMA or a wide-band
CDMA 2000 system," said Song.
The State Council last year authorized China Unicom to solely construct and operate a
CDMA network in China.
Sources say that the military-supported Great Wall Telecom, which operates trial
CDMA systems in four cities, will be eventually allocated to China Unicom. |
