3G mobile trial due in Beijing
Dec 5 2000 3:49PM
Homeway
China is expected to launch a trial for the third-generation (3G) mobile phone network in the first half of next year and commercial 3G operation in 2002, the China Daily reports.
Cao Shumin, chairman of the China Wireless Telecommunications Standard of the Ministry of Information Industry, disclosed this Monday.
The trial will be carried out in Beijing, but the network operator has not been determined, she said.
All telecom carriers have indicated their interest in the trial and it is possible that several of them would hold the technical experiment in different places.
Cao said the government is working on 3G commercial standards of all TD-SCDMA, WCDMA and CDMA2000, which should be completed next year.
A forum to promote TD-SCDMA standard, which has become an ITU-recognized standard as proposed by the relevant government department, would be launched on December 12 in Beijing. The forum will have about 150 members, most of whom are domestic manufacturers, Cao said.
China and 3G have been the most frequently discussed topics at the ongoing International Telecommunication Union Telecom Asia 2000, being a combination of a huge market and the future of telecom and Internet.
Wu Jichuan, minister of information industry, said the mainland's telecom market is expected to double in the coming five years, at a growth rate which is 20% higher than the overall economy.
Wu said fixed-line and mobile phone subscribers grew to 200 million this year, doubling since 1998. It took 13 years for China's fixed-line and mobile phone users to grow from 2.03 million in 1979 to 10 million in 1992, Wu said.
Internet users reached 20 million in September, he said.
The immense market potential has lured all major equipment providers.
Qualcomm chief Irwin Jacobs said China Unicom, one of the mainland's two mobile operators, could begin deploying a 10 million-subscriber network based on Qualcomm's proprietary CDMA technology in early 2001.
Qualcomm has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with MII confirming a Framework Agreement with China Unicom to use Qualcomm's 2G CDMA technology, which was signed in January.
Despite market skepticism in the past few months about the high cost and revenue outlook of the 3G networks, Yoshio Utsumi, ITU secretary-general, remains positive about the future application of the technology.
ITU has worked to set up a standard, coordinated in allocation of frequencies. ITU is promoting details of standardization of the technology, Utsumi said.
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