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Red carpet rolled out for 3G

By Wang Xing (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-01-23 07:40

China yesterday unveiled a package of policies including financial supports and government procurement to prop up the country's home-grown 3G standard.

China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) released on its website 15 policies to support TD-SCDMA, which rivals more mature foreign peers WCDMA and CDMA2000 in the country's 3G arena launched earlier this month.

The supportive measures on TD-SCDMA include promoting network construction, bringing TD-SCDMA products into government procurement programs and providing financial support in the standard's research and development.

The policies came shortly after China handed out long-delayed 3G licenses on Jan 7, which had long been postponed but recently got approved as part of the country's effort to stimulate its slowing economic growth amid the financial crisis.

MIIT said yesterday that Chinese telecom operators are expected to spend 170 billion yuan in 3G this year, and about 400 billion yuan by 2011.

It said China Mobile, the country's largest cell phone carrier, will spend 58.8 billion yuan in 2009 to build its TD-SCDMA network, while smaller rivals China Unicom and China Telecom will invest 30 billion yuan each to develop their WCDMA and CDMA 2000 networks. These three carriers are aiming to attract about 50 million 3G users over the next three years, MIIT said.

According to earlier reports, China Mobile will build about 60,000 base stations by the end of 2009 when its coverage will serve more than 70 percent of all Chinese cities. China Unicom and China Telecom will also launch their 3G services in major Chinese cities before the first half of this year.

Experts predict that China Mobile's dominating position in the telecom market will be weakened as its competitors China Unicom and China Telecom are expected to get wide support from multinationals like Nokia and Samsung, which have released WCDMA and CDMA2000-based handsets in overseas markets.

China Mobile had 457 million users last year, an increase of 87.91 million over 2007. China Telecom's CDMA users fell to 27.91 million by the end of 2008, down from 42 million users when it acquired the business from China Unicom in June last year. China Unicom has 133 million mobile users.