China to Evaluate Mobile Roaming Charges
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China's National Development and Reform Commission is holding public hearings to consider proposed mobile roaming plans.
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Is it too late to dial into profits with the leading Chinese telecom?
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Chinadotcom Corp. said Friday that China&#39;s state-controlled wireless carrier fined the company $160,000 and suspended its text-message services on charges that the cell-phone service provider&#39;s Go2joy unit charged inactive users and switched customers&#39; ...
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The European Commission said Wednesday it had dropped its antitrust investigation into mobile phone roaming prices charged by operators in Britain and Germany after new EU rules forcing telecom companies to cut the cost of using mobile phones abroad.
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(InfoWorld) - China launched the first trials of a home-grown 4G (fourth-generation) mobile communications network in a district of Shanghai on Sunday, despite the fact it hasn't even decided on standards for 3G (third-generation) services, the Web site of the state-run China Daily reported. The field test in Shanghai's Changning District will cost about 150 million Chinese renminbi ($19.3 million) by the time it's completed and marks an important step for China. It will be the final trial of a system made in China and fulfills a goal ofÂ developing technology at homeÂ to meet the needs of Chinese users. The group of 10 Chinese institutions involved in the 4G project have obtained more than 200 patents for the system since starting research in 2001, and some of its fundamental technologies have been adopted by international standards organizations, the China Daily said, without naming the organizations. The goal has been to put the 4G system into trial commercial use between 2006 and 2010. The 4G system was designed to transmit data and images wirelessly at speeds as fast as landline optical fiber, the China Daily said. Research on the 4G system, called the FuTURE Project, short for Future Technology for Universal Radio Environment, was started as part of China's national high-tech initiative. China hasn't yet released aÂ timetable for the rollout of 3GÂ mobile networks, nor said how many licenses it will issue. Chinese officials have said they want 3G services up and running in time for the 2008 Olympic Games, to be held in Beijing. One issue surrounding the opening of 3G services in China has been the selection of the technology or technologies to be used. Many Chinese officials favor a home-grown standard, TD-SCDMA (Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access), but a TD-SDCMA rollout could prove slow because of a lack of support from equipment and handset manufacturers. Â
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(InfoWorld) - Operators in India and China are waiting for government approval to roll out 3G (third-generation) mobile services based on CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access), according to an industry group that backs the technology. In China, mobile operators and equipment makers have longÂ waited for the government to issue licensesÂ for 3G services. In the meantime, operators such as China Mobile Communications (China Mobile) have built trial 3G networks to prepare for the eventual rollout of commercial services, widely expected before Beijing hosts the 2008 Olympics. The country's second-largest mobile operator, China United Telecommunications Co. (China Unicom), which now operates a CDMA2000-1X network, is ready to roll out services based on CDMA2000-1X EV-DO (Evolution Data Optimized), which offers much faster data speeds than its current network. "China Unicom is ready to launch that network," said James Person, chief operating officer of the CDMA Development Group, an industry group that promotes CDMA technology. The only factor holding them back is government approval for 3G licenses, he said. Indian operators Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices are also waiting for the go ahead to roll out 3G services based on EV-DO, Person said. Approval from India's Department of Telecommunications could come as soon as next month, he said. Indian licenses for 3G services have been held up by issues related to how the radio spectrum is allocated, said Kunal Bajaj, director of telecommunication consulting company BDA Connect (India), in Delhi. While Indian government ministers have been meeting to discuss how to resolve the impasse, so far been no decision has been reached on 3G licenses. However, some observers expect a decision to be made this quarter, but not necessarily this month. "The expectation is that March may be a more reasonable time frame," Bajaj said. When China's Ministry of Information Industry will issue 3G licenses is also not clear. The government has not issued a timeline for when it expects to issue the license, leading observers to speculate the licenses will come when China's homegrown 3G technology -- TD-SCDMA (Time Division Synchronous CDMA), which is now in testing -- is ready for commercial deployment.
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By Simon Usborne and Rebecca Armstrong  Fancy catching up with a family member in Australia? How about having a long chat with a mate in China? Chances are, making a call to either will make your phone bill rocket.
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China recorded more than 320 million subscribers to mobile phone services as of the end of October this year, equivalent to a penetration rate of 24.8 users per 100 persons, according to statistics released by Chinaâs Ministry of Information Industry.
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China Mobile is considering a bid for CSL, Hong Kong's second-largest mobile phone operator, owned by Australia's Telstra, in a deal that could be worth about US&#36;1.8bn and mark the latest overseas foray by a state-owned Chinese group.
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(InfoWorld) - China Mobile Communications, the country's largest mobile operator, will soon offer Microsoft's push e-mail service to its subscribers, the two companies said Monday. The Push Mail service will start operation in mid-December, giving subscribers who use mobile devices running Microsoft's Windows Mobile 5.0 software the ability to send and receive e-mail, the companies said on the opening day of the International Telecommunication Union's (ITU's) Telecom World 2006 exhibition and conference in Hong Kong. Pricing for the service was not announced. In addition to Microsoft's push e-mail service, China Mobile alreadyÂ offers Research In Motion's rival BlackBerryÂ push e-mail service. China Mobile offers two service plans for Research In Motion's BlackBerry in China. One plan includes 50MB of data transfer over China Mobile's GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) network for 398 renminbi ($51.76) per month. The other plan, priced at 598 renminbi per month, offers 400MB of data transfer for e-mail, including 2MB of international roaming for data access. Telecom World runs through Friday, December 8.
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(InfoWorld) - The European Union's 27 governments gave the final OK Thursday to a law that will slash the cost of using a mobile phone abroad by around 70 percent, the German government said. By the end of this month mobile phone operators will have to offer subscribers a capped rate for phoning or receiving calls while outside their own countries. In the first year, roaming tariffs will be capped at â¬0.49 ($0.66) a minute for making calls abroad and â¬0.24 for receiving them. It will fall to â¬0.46 and â¬0.22 in the second year and â¬0.43 and â¬0.19 in the third, respectively. A rear-guard action by the U.K. in defense of mobile phone operators petered out and British Industry Minister Margaret Hodge was convinced to support theÂ compromise packageÂ put forward by the European Parliament. Mobile phone operators haveÂ lobbied hard to avert the law, which they see as unnecessary and harmful to competition. German Economy Minister Michael Glos was chairing the meeting because Germany currently holds the six-month rotating presidency of the EU. He will announce the agreement reached Thursday morning at a press conference at 3 p.m. CET (1 p.m. GMT). Â
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The low-cost airline will offer mobile access to passengers, for a price. Fees to "mirror" roaming charges.
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Jens F. Laurson and George A. Pieler explain why cell phone roaming charges in Europe remain stuck in the stratosphere.
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China pledges greater efforts to crack text message fraud    BEIJING, March. 2 (Xinhua)-- China's Ministry of Information Industry (MII) has vowed to tighten measures to shield Chinese mobile phone users from text message fraud.
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China will put its homegrown 3G (third-generation) mobile technology to use during the 2008 Olympic Games, the country&#39;s state-owned broadcaster said in a news report.&quot;China&#39;s top economic planner says the country will use its homegrown&#160;3G service at the Beijing Olympics&#160;next year,&quot; China Central Television (CCTV) said during a news broadcast (requires Internet Explorer) on Wednesday.The announcement by officials from China&#39;s National Development and Reform Commission was made during the PT/Expo Comm China 2007 exhibition this week in Beijing. Trials of TD-SCDMA (Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access) will be expanded to include the Olympics, but officials offered no hint of when the country plans to&#160;issue licenses for 3G services, CCTV reported.They also offered no hint of whether other 3G technologies will be in use during the Olympics, CCTV said.Chinese officials have long promised that 3G would be part of the technologies used to host a &quot;high-tech Olympics.&quot; But China&#39;s move towards 3G was slowed by bureaucratic infighting and the relative immaturity of the domestically developed 3G standard. As tests have continued in a bid to prove that TD-SCDMA is ready for commercial deployment, the government has held off on plans to issue 3G licenses.That delay leaves open the possibility that China will not have commercial 3G services ready in time for the Olympics. That now seems to be a certainty, even if a trial TD-SCDMA service is made available to showcase that technology during the games.&#160;
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Operators say operators should set prices Mobile World Congress EU telecoms commissioner Viviane Reding has warned mobile executives in Barcelona today that she will impose caps on roaming charges for data and text messaging if they do not cut prices by 1 July.â¦
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Price and coverage are the key issues affecting mobile users, a survey of European consumers finds.