Qualcomm Says China Backs Use of its Technology by China Unicom
By Thomas Lau
Hong Kong, Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Qualcomm Inc. said it has won China's backing for an agreement with China Unicom Ltd., the country's second-largest mobile-phone company, to develop a nationwide network based on the U.S. company's technology.
China's Ministry of Information Industry, which is responsible for formulating China's information industry policies, gave the approval in a memorandum of understanding signed today, the Qualcomm said in a news release.
The Chinese government plans to give China Unicom a network once run by Great Wall Telecommunications Co. The network uses Qualcomm's code-division multiple-access technology. Currently, China Unicom uses a rival technology, Global System for Mobile Communications, or GSM.
Qualcomm wants to sell cell-phone chips and license CDMA technology patents in China. There are 65 million cellular phone users in China, the second-largest market behind the U.S. China is expected to become the world's biggest wireless phone market within 10 years.
To make the CDMA network more attractive to customers, China Unicom's parent company, China United Telecommunications Corp., plans to add features to the network, such as a high-speed data service, which is used primarily by business customers.
China Unicom's customers more than doubled to 10 million by September from 4.2 million at the end of 1999. It expects to have 29 million GSM customers by 2002. |
