China has finally awarded its long awaited 3G licenses and formally outlined who got what. The government confirmed that the Cabinet has approved the licenses last Wednesday, but only published the formal details this morning.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) confirmed expectations and that China Mobile has been awarded a license for the home-grown 3G technology, TD-SCDMA. The other two main carriers, China Telecom received a CDMA2000 3G license, while China Unicom will use WCDMA
While the State Council, the country's Cabinet, had already approved the issue of the 3G licenses, the MIIT said that it would only issue licenses when the industry restructuring was accomplished. The restructuring effectively completed yesterday when China Unicom won government approval to merge with China Network Communications Group.
MIIT minister Li Yizhong said on Dec. 19 that the networks are expected to spend as much as US$41 billion over the next two years building out their 3G networks - or upgrading their existing infrastructure. The development of the 3G networks could lead to US$290 billion in private-sector investment in the next two or three years, said Chen Jinqiao, deputy chief engineer of the MIIT's telecommunications research institute.
An on-line survey at Sina.com on Wednesday found that 65 percent of the 130,000 respondents said they would choose 3G network service.
China Mobile is currently expanding its existing TD-SCDMA 3G trials to 28 additional cities. The operator is currently trialling the network in eight cities, Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Shenyang, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Xiamen and Qinhuangdao.
Posted to the site on 7th January 2009
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/35388.php