This article is providing surprising details on Unicom's 3G plans.
news.enet.com.cn
.... according to "Lou" (my translation), a member of some MII 3G subcommittee, the committee has already submitted their 3G report. He opined that 3G licenses will be issued this year. Most likely that Telecom, Netcom, Mobile and Unicom will all receive licenses.
This reporter heard from Guangtong Unicom that as soon as the 2nd phase of the CDMA build out is completed on March 20, Unicom would be starting the 3rd phase immediately. This is advancing the original 1x upgrade plan by one quarter from the originally planned June qtr to the March qtr. This is hinting that Unicom is going full speed on their 3G plans.
According to industry expert, 2.5G CDMA 1X can smoothly migrate to 3G CDMA 2000. It is obvious that Unicom is in the process of building a 3G value chain and alliances. He added that the issuance of 3G licenses are unlikely for the first half of 2003. In addition, GPRS upgrade to 3G is not backward compatible with the existing handsets. Therefore, from 2003-early 2004, it is possible that only Unicom can provide 3G service.
(Unicom) relying on 3rd phase to pass Mobile
Unicom is planning that within 3 yrs, CDMA would cover the entire city class cities nationwide (I think that includes big villages), with a capacity of 50 million, at a total cost of 70 billion yuan (US$8 billion ~). According to sources in Unicom, the plan is in process of approval, hoping that the RFP process would begin in April. According to some of the 2nd phase vendors, they have already received inquiries from Unicom.
This is exposing Unicom's ambition: BE THE FIRST CARRIER TO LAUNCH 3G. In fact, when Unicom first launched cdma, its target was not just cdma but the future of cdma. That being the 2.5G cdma1x and the 3G cdma2000. Only with that approach could Unicom be competitive. Right now, 1X EVDO has already met commercial conditions and commercially used in US and Korea. According to insiders, Unicom plans on testing 3G in ten major cities this year for full launch next year.
(Table for the 3 phases of Unicom's project)
1st phase - 15.15 million sub capacity - 30 billion yuan cost - completed Oct 2001.
2nd phase - 30 million sub capacity - 20 billion yuan cost - estimated completion by March 2003.
3rd phase - 50 million sub capacity - estimated to be 30 billion yuan cost - estimated completion by yr end 2003. |
