China Telecom unit `testing 3G option'
Georgina Lee, 28 January 2003 / 12:55 AM
thestandard.com.hk
China Telecom has reportedly taken a step closer to adopting the foreign-invented CDMA2000 third generation (3G) standard by testing the technology through the group's subsidiary in Fujian Province.
Quoting unnamed sources, mainland financial publication Caijing Shibao reported the tests were being conducted in Quanzhou city by Fuzhou Telecom.
The report, if confirmed, could point to the fixed line operator choosing the technology - popular in the United States and Japan - over wideband code-division multiple access, or W-CDMA, which is widely adopted in Europe and is expected to be adopted by China Mobile as a migration from its existing GSM, or global system for mobile communication.
Caijing Shibao quoted a China Telecom source as saying senior company officials had been lobbying officials at the Ministry of Information Industry, the country's telecom regulator, to allow it a free hand in choosing the 3G standard.
A China Telecom official in Hong Kong refused to comment on the report when contacted by The Standard. The market has been expecting the country's two fixed-line carriers, China Telecom and China Netcom, to be awarded 3G spectrum within two years.
While previously the market had been concerned that the two would only be allowed to roll out 3G mobile services based on the home-grown TD-SCDMA, or time division synchronous code-division multiple access, Information Industry Minister Wu Jichuan last month said market forces should determine which technology standard carriers adopted.
Separately, Caijing Shibao quoted the same source as saying that China Telecom Group has selected subsidiaries from six better performing provinces to inject into the listed China Telecom.
These provinces are Anhui, Sichuan, Fujian, Guangxi, Jiangxi and Hunan. The source said listed China Telecom is free to acquire any five of the six.
The source said although the company has not yet submitted its asset injection proposal to the authorities, valuation on the assets slated for injection should be completed in three months' time. |
