Xinhua news agency reports China Mobile, the world’s largest mobile carrier, plans to invest RMB58.8 billion ($8.6 billion) this year to build 60,000 third generation (3G) base stations.
The plan will increase the number of China Mobile’s 3G base stations to more than 80,000 across China.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology awarded China Mobile a license to operate a 3G network based on the domestically developed TD-SCDMA standard.
At the same time the ministry gave approval to smaller rivals China Unicom and China Telecom to develop WCDMA and CDMA 2000 networks, respectively.
The ministry said last month that spending on 3G equipment by carriers would total $41 billion over the next two years.
Source: Reuters