China Market Could Support 4 Mobile Carriers;
3G Trials to Be Delayed
By AFX News Limited , Sep 04 2001
China wants to focus on 2.5 G first...
China's mobile phone market could sustain four licensed 3G
mobile carriers, Chen Ruming, deputy director general of the
Ministry of Information Industry's Radio Regulatory Bureau
was quoted as saying in the Business Weekly.
Although the MII has not yet decided which 3G standard it will
adopt nor how many new licences it will issue, Chen, whose
bureau is responsible for radio spectrum management, said
having four carriers would improve competition and market
efficiency.
He said China will probably delay commercial trials of third
generation mobile communications technology because of the
problems experienced by foreign operators in European
markets.
China originally planned to launch trial operations of 3G
technology later this year and start commercial trials in late
2002 and early 2003, the newspaper said.
However, "as most foreign operators have found major
problems in the application of 3G technology and have
postponed their commercial operations, 3G commercial trials
in China will also most probably be delayed," Chen said.
The arrival of 2.5G, or GPRS, the bridge technology between
2G and 3G systems, will also help delay the launch, the
newspaper said.
Lu Xiangdong, deputy president of China Mobile, said the
company will not transfer to 3G within the next three years
and said 2G and 2.5G will still dominate the market.
China Mobile, which has 70 pct of the mobile market,
launched trial commercial operations for 2.5G several months
ago.
Chen said the government's decision on which 3G standard to
adopt will be made "much later", adding: "We must be
cautious as nobody can afford the result of an improper
decision."
He added that each of the three mainstream 3G standards,
W-CDMA, developed by European companies, CDMA2000,
developed by Qualcomm Inc, and TD-SCDMA, developed in
China with Siemens AG, could satisfy different market
demands.
TD-SCDMA could supplement W-CDMA and CDMA2000 as its
technology is said to be more efficient in using radio
spectrum, he said.
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