Visitors to Beijing for the Olympics are not going to get, as promised, 3G service on their cellphones, but it is promised Wi-Fi will be widely available, and it will be free of charge.

China Communications, working with the Beijing city government, has launched the first phase of its Beijing WiCity, providing free wireless Internet access in select districts throughout the city (shaded orange on the illustration).

The plan is to provide free Wifi over a 100 square kilometer area through the Olympics an this will be the biggest Wi-Fi network in China. From there it will expand by next year to 625 square kilometers next year and by 2010 Beijing’s entire city center and the rural areas surrounding the city will be covered.

Tests so far have not been overly encouraging with the Beijing office of the Wall Street Jornal, located within a covered area, only one bar of signal was detected and it wasn’t possible to connect. Media blog Danwei reported access trouble, and a Sina.com report noted that in Beijing’s hi-tech district, Zhongguancun, the signal only worked outdoors.

Sadly, there will be no 3G cellular service except perhaps that based in testing mode on TD-SCDMA, the home standard, despite past pledges from officials. Since China hasn’t issued any 3G licenses for networks using the two international kinds of 3G technology, the networks haven’t been built.

The government has said that 3G services using China’s homegrown TD-SCDMA technology will be available in time for the Games — but overseas visitors phones are not compatible with that standard.
Source: Wall Street Journal Blog

The long awaited restructuring of China’s telecom market is happening.

What is surprising — at least it came as a surprise to all commentators and apparently all the major players — was inter-network mandated roaming with a price set by the regulator.

Suffering from this plan is China Mobile which currently earns roughly 70% of the industries’ (fixed and mobile) profits.

The new blueprint is meant to level the playing field, advance China’s homegrown technology standards and intellectual property and cut down on the need to overbuild base stations.

The government appears to be under the impression that it can tell China’s 580 million mobile users what handset or network to spend their money on. As it stands for 80% of new subscribers, the natural choice is China Mobile, but that’s most likely due to its extensive network coverage and the wide availability of popular 2G GSM handsets.

All of this could perhaps change a bit if TD-SCDMA — which is 3G — was launched and operating licenses issued for it and other 3G technologies.

Analysys International, a Beijing-based tech research firm, estimates China will have 30 million 3G users by 2011. Around 17 million of them will be using TD-SCDMA — small in terms of the country’s mobile market as a whole but significant if the network is running in part on Chinese technology.

TDCMA is being trialed in 10 cities including Beijing and Shanghai. Updates from the trials are a closely guarded secret, but one analyst described TD-SCDMA’s performance as ‘not shining.’ And that seems to be the general impression.

David Wolf, president of media, tech and telecom consultancy Wolf Group Asia came up with a most believable explanation.

He said, ‘TD-SCDMA is a technical achievement that shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand. But from a commercial standpoint, all it represents is that when 4G comes, China has a place at the table that it never would have had without TD-SCDMA. It makes China a player in 4G, but it won’t make it a player in 3G.’

Finally where does this leave iPhone which has not got a deal with China Mobile and a change seems unlikely. But the market wants the iPhone. There is already a very substantial gray market. China Mobile being unable to make a deal will not change that.
Sources: China Economic Review and Market Watch

Chinese security officials are somewhat worried hackers will strike while the Olympic Games are being held in Beijing.

China’s National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team (CNCERT) said in a report released earlier this month, ‘Based on historical experience, many hackers seeking to make a name for themselves view the Olympic Games as a challenge and a target, and the Beijing Olympics may face attacks from individual hackers, groups, organizations, as well as other countries and those with all kinds of political motivations, therefore the network security situation is very grim,’

Well, yes and no. For a Chinese hacker to go at the Beijing Olympics would be monstrous. Other hackers would take is as unpatriotic and such a hacker, in the opinion of several hackers, would quicky be denounced.

And one can take it the authorities would not take a light view of it.

A high-profile attack on Chinese computer systems during the Beijing Olympics would be a serious blow to organizers and the government, which has worked hard to position the Games as a celebration of the economic and social strides made by China since embarking on reforms 30 years ago.

Jim Fitzsimmons, a security consultant in Shanghai said, ‘It’s very important for the government to make this successful. They are taking this issue very, very seriously. In terms of platforms that people could attack in China, or subvert to attack something else, there’s quite a bit out there.’

There is now a special response team in Beijing that will monitor systems for signs of attacks and then respond if one is detected.

So far, there has not been a response from foreign hackers to Chinese attacks against CNN or pro-Tibet Web sites. But hackers may simply be biding their time, choosing to attack or deface Chinese Web sites during the Olympics, a time when any such incident would generate the most publicity.

Fitzsimmons said, ‘I honestly believe something is going to happen, but how bad it could be or what is the scale of it, that’s anybody’s guess.’

One guess, devoutly believed here, is that it will happen but it will be relatively minor.
Source: PC World

Australian company SmartTrans has developed a system to help non-Chinese speaking VIPs get around Beijing during the Olympics.

SmartTrans’ technology EventTrack works in tandem with any late model mobile phone equipped with GPS. The system, launched in Beijing yesterday by ­Australian prime minister­ Kevin Rudd, will enable the user to identify, in English, where they are in Beijing.

EventTrack provides information to a control centre to assist official transportation for Games VIPs and officials who need to move speedily between venues. A GPS map, displayed on the phone’s screen, will show the booked car approaching, along with its description, licence plate number and driver’s name. Non-VIP’s will have to sort out their own transport — but at least they will know where they are. Our illustration shows an atypical use.
Source: Computer Daily News

Stanton Technologies, a Malay company which is about to be listed on the Dubai Financial Exchange, has signed an agreement with two China state-owned agencies, China Potevio and China.com.cn, giving its IPTV solutions and content access to more than half a billion mobile users.

So what is an IPTV solution and why are we expected to instantly understand what it means?

Basically it means you can watch video clips on the right model of mobile phone which is important now but will be mega-important during the Beijing Olympics. (A thought might be given to the potential of traffic accidents as drivers keep one eye on the action and one on the road. You will notice in our illustration our model is NOT driving. She is merely leering at an advertisement of David Beckham in his briefs.)

Mervin Nevis, CEO of Stanton, said, ‘This is a landmark deal and the first of its kind where we are now working with two big partners to deliver digital video and audio content and other mobile content services to Chinese consumers.’

China.com.cn and China Teleformation Culture Media Co Ltd (CNTI) are units of China International Publishing Group and China Internet Information Centre.

Two weeks ago, Stanton signed an agreement with Time Broadband for Hollywood and Bollywood content which will see its entry into the content market as part of its expansion.

In a few weeks, Penang-based Stanton will have Dubai Investment Group (DIG) as its shareholder with about 20% equity. DIG also has a 40% stake in Time Broadband.
Source: The Star

China Business News reports an industry alliance to boost China-developed 3G telecommunication standard TD-SCDMA — Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access — is considering building a test network in Shenzhen, South China’s Guangdong Province, to attract more phone makers to join the alliance.

This network, which has an estimated cost of over RMB5 million (US$641,026), will add the number of China’s regional TD-SCDMA networks to six, with the other five in Beijing, Shanghai, Baoding, Qingdao and Xiamen.

The timetable is not settled for the network.

Shenzen is home to nearly 140 phone companies and is the phone manufacturing base of China, accounting for more than 30% of the total.

It is now thought the telephone authority will formally announce the issuing of the long-awaited 3G license, most likely using the local TD-SCDMA standard, by March. This leaves little time to get it up and running in time for the Olympics.
Source: English East Day

According to an industry insider, China Mobile is pessimistic about the development of TD-SCDMA, China’s homegrown 3G standard. Partly this is because of handset problems and partly because of the relative strength of other standards.

The source also said that operators are already preparing to compete over who will develop a network for WCDMA, the European 3G standard, once the TD-SCDMA network is in place.

The source, remaining very anonymous, said, ‘Inside China Mobile, most people are actually not optimistic about TD-SCDMA development.’

And that is almost certainly true for outside China Mobile there is little optimism because the system is not up and running except in test mode.

There is little doubt that TD-SCDMA will be ready in time for the Olympics and that there will be handsets available that will work.

The systems have been on test since November 2007.

The probability is that TD-SCDMA handsets will be released to the general public will be in May of this year. But they will not be as good in many aspects as handsets supporting the WCDMA network.

Analysts have speculated that following the reshuffle of China’s telecom industry, which is expected to happen in the near future, China Telecom will be responsible for WCDMA network construction after it receives a license to operate in the mobile industry. Which is what China Mobile wants.
Source: Interfax

So far Lenovo seem to have consistently go it right and now it is going a step beyond its business-user focus to hurl itself at personal computer with six new PCs.

This may be poor timing.

For the first time, in Japan computers are being outsold by other devices. Awful to relate but personal PCs are not as important as they once were. Not dead, not sick, not even a slight fever. But not the most robust of growing health.

By buying IBM’s personal computer business three years ago, Lenovo vaulted from the No. 8 position among PC makers to become the world’s third biggest.

Everyone is snapping at its heels so it is taking two major, major step to stay up there with the biggies. First it is sponsoring the Olympic Games which will give it a lot of exposure. Now it has announced that it’s expanding from its focus on business users to target the consumer market on a global basis.

Three laptops and three desktop models will be launched in multiple countries including the U.S., China, France, Russia, India, Australia, and Indonesia. Until now the company was best known for its ThinkPad business laptops. This is about to change.

Deepak Advani, the company’s chief marketing officer said, ‘This move is very important in the long run for us to meet our global aspirations. The ThinkPad is the gold standard in business notebooks, and it does help build the global brand, but with the consumer strategy we can turbocharge it.’

In the third quarter of 2007, Lenovo’s share of global PC shipments came to 8.2%, edging Acer’s 8.1% market share.

Acer competes heavily on price, Lenovo tries to position itself as the quality bran. Not that it makes that much difference. I just had to look to see I was using an Acer. But with a wireless Logitech keyboard.

Maybe I could lust after the IdeaPad U110 which is a 2.3-pound laptop with a bright red top and a high-sheen, 11-inch screen that runs right to the edge of the lid.

All six machines also offer facial recognition-based security: When you boot up, photographic software studies your face through a built-in camera above the screen, confirming your identity before it lets you start using the machine. With me this will be a problem. My mother used to have trouble recognizing me. Mark you, she had eight other children to remember.
Source: Business Times

Lenovo will end its sponsorship of the Olympics after the 2008 summer games in Beijing.

In explanation it said after the Beijing games, it will have accomplished its major goal for the sponsorship: raising awareness of the company’s brand.

This is indeed true. And it is appropriate that Lenovo should be involved with the Olympics in Beijing but not after that. For being a major sponsor costs big, big, huge money. And some sponsors have been so depleted by the experience that they have disappeared. Ansett Airlines in Australia being one of them.

Lenovo was a little-known company when it bought IBM’s personal computer division in 2005. It has managed to build on that brand and is slowly moving to selling more computers to consumers, instead of to the businesses that have been Lenovo’s top customers outside China.

Executives told U.S. News & World Report they thought Olympic advertising would be more effective than traditional marketing schemes. Which is undoubtedly true. But it is not a game for the faint of heart or the short of pocket.

How much did it cost Lenovo?

The company is not saying but no less than $80 million and possibly $100 million.

Lenovo has now said it will provide more than 500 technicians and some 20,000 pieces of network infrastructure, including computers, servers and monitors, in Beijing. After which, all things being equal, it will be well enough known not to have to indulge in such an expensive sponsorship again.
Source: Triangle Business Journal

Telstra is Australia’s largest telephone company, is part owned by the government and has an American CEO who is, at the very least, to be seen as a contentious character. The government loves not Sol Trujillo who they think is rocking the boat. It was in desperate need of rocking.

Now Sol Trujillo is thinking of taking SouFun into an IPO. He said in Macau that it ‘is a very profitable business, and it is growing very fast.’
Telstra last year paid $254 million for a controlling stake in Beijing-based SouFun, China’s biggest online real estate broker.

SouFun plans to increase operations to around 75 to 100 Chinese cities as rising real estate demand drives up home prices.

Andrew Jobson, an analyst with Daiwa Institute of Research in Hong Kong said SouFun is attractive as ‘everybody is trying to get into China right now. SouFun has had a lot of growth.’

Sol Trujillo said Telstra may acquire other businesses in China to combine with SouFun before the IPO. The IPO may also fund plans for SouFun to expand its services beyond property and home-improvement listings.

Sales at SouFun rose 97% to (US$43 million) in the year ended June 30. The acquisition helped Sensis, Telstra’s advertising and directories unit, post an 8% increase in revenue.

Housing prices in 70 major Chinese cities jumped 8.9% in September from a year earlier, the biggest increase since records began in August 2005.

Note that Telstra has other committements in China. Telstra has inked a deal with China Netcom to carry high-definition images of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games into Australia.

The telco will monitor international broadcast feeds using two fibreoptic cable links from China to Australia — one via Tokyo and another via Hong Kong. Telstra reports it will be the first Olympic Games to be shown in Australia in High Definition, requiring a major increase in data volume. Should sell a lot of High Definition sets as well.