On 7 Jan, 2009, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of PRC issued 3 third-generation mobile telephone licenses. China Mobile got a TD-SCDMA license; China Telecom got a CDMA2000 license while China Unicom got a WCDMA license.
Chinese paid too much attention to 3G and it is estimated that that over $40 billion has been been invested in the 3G market of China.
WCDMA and CDMA are popular standards in the world while TD-SCDMA is China’s own special standard.
China Mobile, the operator of TD-SCDMA in China, faces opportunities and challenges.
China Unicom, China’s second largest mobile service provider, got the most popular 3G standard, but it is hard to say if it will keep up with China Mobile.
China Telecom, which bought China Unicom’s CDMA network, is the largest fixed-line telephone company in the world but has little experience in mobile communications services.
Mobile phone companies in China live in interesting times.
Trading Markets reports that it is thought that if a 3G standard could succeed in China, the massive supply of terminal equipment is necessary. The support of International mobile phone giants will affect the operators’ development prospects.