Would someone care to speculate on the significance of the following article on qcom? (I also don't understand what technology AT+T will be using in China)
AT&T approved for landmark China venture
totaltele.com
AT&T Corp has won a green light to launch the first foreign telecommunications joint venture in China since the country pledged to open the sector under World Trade Organization rules, AT&T said on Wednesday.
The top U.S. long-distance phone provider has won approval to take a 25 percent stake in Shanghai Symphony Telecom Co, a broadband service provider to be launched in the fast-developing Pudong district of Shanghai, AT&T spokesman Greg Brutus said.
The remaining shares will be held by the Shanghai branch of state giant China Telecom and by Shanghai Information Investment Inc, a firm controlled by the Shanghai city government, Brutus said.
He declined to confirm the size of the venture, which the official China Daily said comprised $25 million in investment.
"I can't confirm the amount, but I can confirm that AT&T will have a 25 percent stake," he said, adding that a signing ceremony was scheduled to be held later on Wednesday in Pudong.
The deal, which the China Daily said took eight years to negotiate, is the latest sign Beijing is willing to comply with market opening commitments it made to members of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
China has pledged to phase in foreign investment in the telecoms service sector when it joins the trade body, which analysts expect in the next few months.
Most past attempts to break into the sector have met with failure.
In the mid-1990s foreign investors poured $1.4 billion into more than 40 telecoms service joint ventures with state carrier China Unicom Group. But Beijing declared the ventures "irregular" in 1998 and forced them to unwind.
Beijing has, however, allowed foreigners to buy minority stakes in China Mobile (Hong Kong) Ltd and China Unicom Ltd, the Hong Kong-listed wings of the country's two mobile phone carriers.
State-owned broadband carrier China Netcom Corp also said last month it had negotiated a deal to give private foreign investors a minority stake in itself.
The AT&T deal apparently marks the only telecoms service joint venture with a foreign company in China. |
