To: Kurthend who wrote (145987 ) 12/5/2012 9:25:25 PM From: slacker711 Respond to Do you agree (at least partially) with my view that maybe China Mobile thinks it doesn't need the iPhone? trefis.com iPhone Helps Unicom To Profit From An Equitable 3G Mix With close to 700 million subscribers, China Mobile is the largest wireless carrier in the world and has twice as many subscribers as China Unicom. But when it comes to 3G, the difference is not nearly as wide. As of August 2012, China Mobile had 72 million 3G subscribers, only about 13% ahead of China Unicom’s 64 million 3G subscribers. Low 3G penetration of around 18% in China is giving smaller wireless carriers such as China Unicom ample opportunity to compete on an even ground with the otherwise dominant China Mobile. Moreover, the fact that China Mobile runs its 3G network on a proprietary homegrown TD-SCDMA standard has proved to be a big deterrent for the carrier in securing smartphones compatible with its network. Even the iPhone, which is already launched on the other two carriers in China, hasn’t made its way to China Mobile yet. Taking advantage of this, China Unicom has been closing the 3G gap with China Mobile by adding at least an equal number of 3G subscribers every month. In July, when China Mobile’s 3G net adds slowed to only 1.9 million, China Unicom’s strengthened to almost 3.1 million. In August, China Mobile’s 3G net adds improved significantly to almost 3.2 million but China Unicom still added about as many 3G subscribers as the previous month. The iPhone 4S addition in January this year is definitely providing a boost to China Unicom’s 3G ambitions, and the carrier is looking to make the most of it before the popular smartphone arrives on China Mobile’s network. (see Qualcomm Paves the Way for an Apple-China Mobile iPhone Deal )
