China decides to eclipse the Europeans by moving directly to 3G CDMA 1X rather to 95A. As engineer has taught us, It takes only a few months to convert a 1X system to 1X EV.
China Unicom Says Will Skip Interim
Standard for CDMA Network
By Kenneth Wong
Hong Kong, April 2 (Bloomberg) -- China United
Telecommunications Corp. said it will leapfrog technology to
transform its mobile phone operations into a service offering
voice and data transmission at 15 times the existing speed.
China's second-largest mobile phone operator will use a so-
called ``packet-switching'' standard to upgrade its network,
leaving out an intermediate ``circuit'' standard, said Li Zhengmao,
executive director of unit China Unicom Ltd. Packet technology
transmits signals in bundles, allowing data to be transmitted
faster, compared with circuit-based equipment.
Last week, Unicom said its parent will spend 20 billion yuan ($2.4
billion) in two years to develop the network, based on code
division multiple access technology, which it acquired from the
army in January. The upgraded network will run at speeds of 144
kilobytes a second, allowing large amounts of data such as
videos and music to be sent and received easily.
Choosing a more advanced technical standard shows Unicom is
betting on China's market for data traffic and hence willing to
spend far more than necessary, analysts said. While a regular
upgrade would involve only minor software modifications, leaping
to packet technology requires installing additional equipment.
The Strategis Group, a U.S.-based market research firm,
forecasts users of mobile data services in China will increase to
about 60 million by 2007 from just 1.2 million this year.
Unicom's network will have the capacity to sign up around five
million subscribers by the end of this year and 13.3 million by the
end of 2002, Li said earlier. The company will start leasing the
parent's network as early as the fourth quarter. |
