China Mobile Still Plans To Launch 3G Services In 2004
Monday September 23, 3:28 am ET
BEIJING -(Dow Jones)- Undeterred by Europe's recent retreat from third- generation, or 3G, wireless technology, China Mobile Communications Corp. said Monday it is keeping its plan to start offering 3G services in 2004.
"We are not postponing. We are still sticking to the schedule," Vice-President Li Yue told the 3G Mobile International Summit. He said the company's timetable calls for regional trials of 3G services in 2003, followed by the launch of formal commercial services in 2004.
State-owned China Mobile, the parent of China Mobile (Hong Kong) Ltd. (NYSE:CHL - News) , is the largest mobile network operator in the world's largest mobile market, and as such its decisions are critically important to suppliers of 3G equipment like Telefon AB LM Ericsson .
Li cautioned that China Mobile's schedule for the launch of 3G's high-speed wireless data services, like video phone calls and music downloads, depends in part on whether suppliers can provide it with systems that are "mature."
He said China Mobile is still planning to use the 3G technology known as WCDMA, or wideband code division multiple access, which has been chosen by European governments. But Li said he couldn't rule out the possibility that, under "special circumstances," China Mobile could choose a rival technology, CDMA2000.
But a bigger worry for China Mobile is finding enough paying customers for 3G's newfangled services. The company's existing high-speed data service, based on a technology called GPRS, has some of the same features as 3G, but Li said subscriber growth hasn't met expectations.
"The penetration and usage of GPRS is very poor because we don't have killer applications," Li said. He later added that China Mobile now has about 3 million GPRS subscribers.
Li said China Mobile has no plans to follow the lead of its smaller rival, China United Telecommunications Corp., and start subsidizing users' purchases of handsets as a way of increasing its subscriber base.
Instead, Li said China Mobile plans a new offering which it hopes will prime demand for high-speed data services ahead of the 3G launch.
Using a technology called wireless local area network, or WLAN, in conjunction with its GPRS service, China Mobile will this year start offering government and corporate users nationwide wireless network access for notebook and handheld computers.
Li said China Mobile has already started offering versions of this service to Customs and the police, enabling roving officials to keep in constant contact with their internal databases.
"Previously we were a high-growth mobile provider. Now we will change into an information service provider," Li said.
-By Andrew Batson, Dow Jones Newswires; 8610 6588-5848; andrew.batson@dowjones.com
biz.yahoo.com
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China Mobile still favours W-CDMA for 3G services
AFX European Focus
September 23, 2002 Monday 06:15 AM Eastern Time
BEIJING; China Mobile Communcations Corp still favours the WCDMA standard for its 3G
cellular phone network, even though the development and roll-out of networks worldwide
has been slow, Li Yue, vice president of China Mobile said.
However, the operator is not ruling out the possibility of using CDMA2000 1X, a
rival standard developed by Qualcomm Inc under certain circumstances, Li told
reporters on the sidelines of a 3G Mobile conference in Beijing.
Li said China Mobile would have to take several factors into account when deciding
which standard to use to upgrade its current GSM network.
"One is our own decision, one is the technology itself and its maturity, and the other is
the demands of the government," he said. "But we are still giving priority to WCDMA," he
said.
"China's GSM network now has nearly 200 mln users, and it's very convenient for us to
upgrade to GPRS and then to WCDMA and we have a very detailed plan for that
upgrading.
China, the world's largest mobile phone market with 185 mln subscribers, has yet to
decide which mobile standard to adopt for its third generation networks.
In addition to the WCDMA standard used by most European countries and the CDMA200
1X standard used in some Asian countries including South Korea, China has developed its
own 3G standard, TDS-CDMA through joint collaboration between Siemens AG and
Datang Technology, a Chinese state-owned company.
Although China Mobile had seemed certain to choose the WCDMA standard, Wang
Xiaochu, CEO of China Mobile's Hong Kong-listed subsidiary, has reportedly told some
investors that the company might look at other technologies if the
standards rolled out in Europe are not successful.
Earlier, Li Yue told the Beijing conference that China Mobile is planning to start
commercial trials of its third-generation network next year and aims to start offering a
commercial service in some regions in 2004.
"Although the whole world is postponing the formal operation of 3G, China Mobile is
sticking to its original plan for commercial trials in 2003 in some regions so that in 2004
we can launch a formal service."
However, he acknowledged that government policy will be a key factor in whether this
plan can go ahead. The government has taken a cautious view of 3G and has said it will
wait to see how the technology rolls out in other countries before taking a decision on
which standard to choose and when to allow the service to be commercialised.
Li also acknowledged that the strength of market demand for the new services being
offered through GPRS would also play an important role in the development of 3G in
China.
"If there is no market demand for 2.5G, what's the point of moving to 3G," he
said.
China Mobile has so far signed up 3 mln subscribers for its GPRS service and is launching
its multi-media messaging service in October to offerapplications including sending video
clips.
The operator is also building wireless local area networks (WLANs) which will enable
customers to switch between GPRS service and WLANs to take advantage of higher data
speeds in certain hot spots where data traffic density is high.
For more information and to contact AFX: www.afxnews.com and www.afxpress.com
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China Mobile lacks MII's concerns for China's budding vendors and manufacturing base. How will wCDMA IP issues - where China's vendors are at a lethal disadvantage without a dreamy royalty cap - influence Mobile's technology plans?
Also, how would Mobile react if Telecom selects cdma2000? Would wCDMA - with minority status - lose any remaining luster? |
