[photopress:Xi_Guohua_on_the_left.jpg,full,alignright]Xi Guohua, vice minister of the Ministry of Information Industry (seen on the left in our illustration) has said China has no timetable for issuing third- generation wireless permits, but hopes they will help balance a market skewed in favor of mobile operators. He also said that licensing decisions were not linked to trials of the home-developed TD- SCDMA network. ‘We will work hard to speed up research and the decision- making process . . . but there is no timetable,’ Xi said.
He said the market has favored mobile operators, who were growing rapidly — although an expansion into poorer rural markets may dent profits — over fixed-line firms.
Xi Guohua said, ‘The current market competition is imbalanced with the business of mobile
operators booming while the business of fixed-line operators is shrinking.’ He hopes the new licenses might help redress the balance.
Source: The Standard