Samsung Electronics Co has established a US$29m joint venture with Shanghai Bell to market and research networking equipment for the CDMA mobile telecoms standard. The Alcatel unit Shanghai Bell, which will take a 51 per cent stake in the venture, said it was teaming up with Samsung because of the South Korean group’s expertise in code division multiple access and next-generation technology. The joint venture plans to begin research on these new technologies in two to three years. Shanghai Bell, which claims a 30 per cent share of China’s switching market, recorded a 45 per cent rise in net sales last year to Yn9.41bn
Samsung is one of several foreign companies chosen by China Unicom to supply gear for a nationwide CDMA network with a capacity of 15m lines.