China is launching it its own home-grown 3G mobile phone service which is TD-SCDMA which means it does not have to pay royalties to, mainly, American companies.

Then it becomes important that Agilent Technologies, the world’s largest measurement equipment provider, appears to be an early winner with this standard.

The US company estimates that it now holds more than 60% of China’s TD-SCDMA network testing equipment market.

Key mover will be China Mobile, now the world’s largest mobile carrier, which will build a commercial TD-SCDMA network across the nation.

Once a new technology idea, like China’s TD-SCDMA, is proposed, industry players will need test equipment makers like Agilent to provide the tools to research the concepts.

When China decided to establish its own 3G mobile technology TD-SCDMA in 2000 Agilent was the first company to provide the necessary equipment for the homegrown-standard.

The TD-SCDMA standard is currently in use in eight cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Qingdao.

Source: China Daily

Talks about how to bring the iPhone to China have moved from hard-line negotiations to the logistics phase.

During an interview at the Worldwide Developers Conference, Steve Jobs hinted to CNBC that Apple might soon add China to its list of countries where the iPhone will become available.

Working out the details of exactly how that will happen has not been easy.

Now, talks with Chinese wireless carrier China Mobile have cleared their biggest hurdle which was Apple’s insistence on setting up a revenue-sharing agreement.

Apple has reportedly given up on that idea in favor of a model by which the carrier will subsidize the phone up-front, like the deal Apple now has with U.S. provider AT&T and the vast majority of its carrier partners around the world. That has allowed the two companies to move forward with plans and move on to working out the logistics.

However, a China Mobile spokeswoman said there is still no timetable for when the China iPhone will be released.
Source: CNet News.com

China Tietong, which owns the telecommunications network along the nation’s railroads, was ordered to be merged with China Mobile Communications last month to help the nation’s largest mobile phone operator extend its reach to the fixed-line segment.

Now, the state has announced China Mobile, must submit a final proposal on its merger with China Tietong by the end of next month.

Since then, China Tietong’s general manager Zhao Jibin has joined China Mobile Communications as deputy general manager.

Senior officials of China Mobile and China Tietong met earlier to discuss the consolidation plan.

An industry source said China Tietong might split into three divisions — railway communications, communications service, and other retail and internet connectivity businesses.

The smaller businesses of China Tietong, such as its broadband services for retail customers, could be consolidated into China Mobile, while its core railway fixed-line network may come under the state-owned mobile parent as a single entity.

Last year, China Teitong had total assets of RMB16 billion, over 20 million fixed-line users and more than 3 million broadband internet users.

The illustration here is of the China Tietong stand with guqin performances at ITU Telecom World 2006.
Source: Content Agenda

So integrated is the mobile communications device into Chinese society that the authorities have been puzzling for ages over the best way to channel investment for the future.

The thought of leaving it to a free market was ruled out. Chinese regulators jealously guard the role of the state in directing industrial policy — and the key players remain majority state-owned.

The big three that emerged from the reshuffle were China Mobile — the world’s biggest phone company by market value, with 399m mobile subscribers — and its two rivals, China Telecom and China Unicom.

The government’s stated aim was to intervene in the interests of competition and to provide for the arrival of so-called third generation (3G) high-speed mobile services.

Fast internet access, games and multimedia content, from music videos to financial information, will all become available to Chinese users, promising a level of mobile-technology use to rank alongside Japan or South Korea.

Chinese market analysts instinctively saw the changes as a move to weaken China Mobile, which has profited from a 70% share of the market.

Wang Yiwen, general manager of Shanghai Deding Investments said, ‘I believe this restructuring will reduce monopolistic tendencies in the telecoms market. It means the government will introduce an asymmetrical regulatory system to help China Telecom and China Unicom to compete with China Mobile.’

The focus is now turning to the significant capital expenditure that all three companies are expected to need to launch new services.

A broader issue is that the Chinese authorities do not appear to have resolved their view of so-called “digital convergence” in which the flow of information and images to consumers may multiply the audience for news — both good and bad.

The government may soon discover that regulating the telecoms providers is a minor challenge compared with controlling the citizens who will ultimately use their services to communicate with each other. More on this by clicking HERE.
Source: Times Online

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

China will issue three licenses for its third generation mobile phone technology (3G) following an industry reorganization.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the Ministry of Finance said in a joint statement: ‘Based on the current situation of the telecom industry, we encourage China Telecom to buy China Unicom’s code-division multiple access (CDMA) network and China Unicom to incorporate with China Netcom. We encourage China Telecom to combine the basic telecom services unit of China Satcom and China Mobile Communications Corp. (CMCC) to take control of China Tietong Telecommunications ‘

China Unicom has two mobile networks, the CDMA and the global system for mobile communications (GSM).

Almost immediately China Mobile announced its acquisition plan of China Railway Communication (China Railcom), which would become a wholly-owned subsidiary but maintain independent operation.

China Telecom, China Netcom, and China Tietong are fixed line providers, while China Satcom offers services including satellite, mobile communications and Internet services.

The statement noted: ‘Three 3G licenses would be issued to help create three competitive phone companies that have telecom resources nationwide, near equal strength and scale, and can offer both mobile and fixed-line services.’

China has promised to provide 3G services for the Olympic Games in August.

Wang Guoping, analyst from China Galaxy Securities, said the final restructuring plan will have a relatively negative impact on China Mobile while benefiting China Telecom and China Netcom.

He said, ‘After the restructuring, China mobile will have two competitors, both of which will have the advantage of combining their fixed-line business with a mobile business.’

Wang Yuquan, a senior consultant of research firm Frost & Sullivan China, said the restructure may not work as planned.

He said, ‘I don’t think the ongoing restructuring could help increase the competition in the market because the restructuring itself was planned by the government and the telecom operators have little say in the decision making.’

But note that one other competitor looms on the horizon: VoIP which stands for Voice over Net Protocol and is basically a way of making free, or free-ish call over the Internet. Full report in China Economic Review. Click HERE and scroll down to Lines of communication
Source: China Daily and China View

It is a great pity that China did not get its 3G services sorted out properly before the Olympics. We can rejoice that at least some of it is on line and working and there will be a serious presence — perhaps but not a total coverage — for the Olumpics.

We are triumphantly told that China’s 3G (third generation telephony) system will expand service to 10 cities AFTER August’s Olympic Games.

Wan Gang, the nation’s minister of science and technology said, ‘TD-SCDMA (Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access) will commence use in ten big cities after the Olympics.’ He did not provide details as to what cities or when or how large the coverage would be.

Last week, Samsung gave the Beijing Organizing Committee for the summer Olympics 15,000 TD-SCDMA handsets, allowing China to proclaim that it would offer 3G service, via China Mobile, during the Games.

However, it is important to note that TD-SCDMA does not support other 3G formats, so visitors with 3G phones from Japan, Korea and European countries will not be able to use their handsets in Beijing.

As China’s homegrown 3G technology, TD-SCDMA began its latest round of trials in April, in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Qinhuangdao, Shenyang and Xiamen, with a total of 20,000 users. China Mobile, which is offering the service and operating the trial, did not say when it would be completed. Although trials of TD-SCDMA began in 2005, a commercial rollout will still not ready by August.

China has also not issued 3G licenses, although Chinese telecom regulators have hinted at impending licensing for at least two years. China Mobile seems a lock given its prominence in the testing process. China Mobile is both China’s and the world’s largest mobile operator.

It’s also just possible — but not something to bet on — that China could skip 3G altogether, having already held 4G trials in 2007.

Worth nothing that despite the confident remarks of Wan Gang his Ministry of Science and Technology does not oversee telecommunications. That falls to the newly-created Industry and Information Ministry, a successor to the previous Ministry of Information Industry.
Source: IT World

The official word is that the third-generation (3G) mobile phone service is ready for use in the upcoming Beijing Olympics as the high-speed wireless connection service and related products were formally delivered on Monday.

China Mobile, China’s top wireless operator, and South Korean cell phone producer Samsung presented 15,000 3G handsets, plus data cards and nearly three million RMB($428,600) of calling fees (not cash), to the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 29th Olympic Games

With this excellent offer, work staff and volunteers of the Games can enjoy high-speed data transmissions, which allow them to watch televised games, play videos, and surf the Internet on cell phones.

The service is based on the Chinese 3G standard, known as TD-SCDMA (Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access).

China Mobile has basically finished construction of the TD-SCDMA network in eight cities, five of which are to host events for the Beijing Olympics in August, including Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin.
China had promised to provide 3G service for the Games and this is sort of keeping the promise in the most populated parts of the country.

China Mobile is the sole cooperative partner for the Beijing Olympics in mobile communications services while Samsung is the only one in mobile terminal supply so the figures as stated will stand.

China Mobile started the commercial trials of 3G services in the country in April.The ITU, the International Telecommunication Union, recognized TD-SCDMA as one of the world’s three official 3G standards in 2000.

The other two are Europe’s WCDMA and North America’s CDMA 2000 and visitors who bring phones running to those standards will be able to do many things. But not watch the Olympics. Still it is a partal victory and we should give two cheers — somewhat muted perhaps — but cheers nonetheless.
Source: China.com

China Mobile, the country’s biggest mobile phone carrier, says its first-quarter profits have surged while China Telecom, which does fixed lines, said earnings barely grew.

China Mobile said profits for the three months ending March 31 rose 37.2% over the same period of 2007 to RM24.1 billion ($3.4 billion). It said the number of subscribers rose 6% to 392 million.

In contrast, China Telecom, the country’s main fixed-line carrier, said its earnings edged up 0.5$ from the year earlier’s same quarter to RMB6.2 billion ($880 million).

The starkly different results illustrate the growing dominance of mobile phones in China, where many first-time telecoms customers now skip fixed-line service and opt solely for mobile

An amazing statement appeared in the Reuters reports. First it sais that China Mobile will continue to enjoy its leading position in China’s wireless telecom market as there is no clear schedule on the sector’s restructuring.

Kenny Tang, associate director at research department said, ‘It will benefit if the issuance of China’s 3G licences continues to be delayed.’

And you might have said it would have benefitted rickshaw pullers if no one had invented the motor car.

A newspaper quoted Ernst and Young as saying licences for China’s homegrown third-generation (3G) wireless standard may not be granted for one or two years. Which means China will be well behind the rest of the world and, incidentally, will have broken its promise to make these Olympics high tech.
Source: Reuters

The other shoe has at last dropped. China Mobile has announced commercial deployment of TD-SCDMA technology beginning in April. Which means 3G will be available in at least part of China.

This is the local version of 3G for which many people have been waiting with bated breath. TD-SCDMA is a 3G wireless network standard developed by the China Academy of Telecommunications Technology in collaboration with Datang and Siemens and endorsed by the Chinese government.

Dr. Ping Wu, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, said, ‘Today’s announcement demonstrates China Mobile’s strong commitment to commercialize the TD-SCDMA technology and includes a host of measures to facilitate market acceptance of this technology including attractively priced calling plans, availability of six subsidized handset models, availability of USIM cards for consumers who purchase TD-SCDMA handsets through other channels, demo centers in eight cities, financial incentives for resellers, publicity campaigns, and after-sale customer support.

‘We are pleased to see that two of our customers received over 50% of the initial round of 60,000 handset order from China Mobile in January.’

There is still a ways to go.

According to statistics published by China’s Ministry of Information Industry (MII) on its Chinese-language web site there were 565.23 million subscribers of mobile communication services in China as of the end of February 2008. The number of subscribers at the end of February accounted for 41.6% of the country’s population.
Source: FoxBusiness and Digitimes