600M Cell Phones in China?
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China is expected to have more than 600 million cell phone users by 2010, state media said Wednesday.  The Xinhua News Agency, citing the Ministry of Information Industry, said the number of users this year should reach 520 million.
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Ericsson said Friday that it received contracts to build wireless communications networks in China and South Africa. China Telecom Corp.
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Waiting for a friend in  Shenzhen&#39;s plush Kingglory Plaza, Chen Jing, 25, admires her  new red Nokia mobile phone. Complete with 3G and MP3 features,  the phone cost just over 3,000 yuan ($400) -- Chen&#39;s entire  monthly wage.
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Mobile phones are expected to generate more money this year than traditional fixed-line services for the first time due to surging demand in developing countries such as China, India and Russia, an annual industry report said.
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HONG KONG (Dow Jones)--China Mobile (Hong Kong) Ltd. (CHL), the listed unit of China&#39;s biggest cellular phone operator, posted Wednesday a 7.8% rise in first-half net profit on a 23% increase in its subscriber base.
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China's Mobile Search Leader Makes Its Services Available for Free to IM                     Users on Handheld Devices and PCs    SHANGHAI, China, Sept. 18 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- mInfo(R) Inc.
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Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c50314)  has announced the addition of the Global Sources report: China Sourcing  Report: VoIP Phones to their offering.  Greater China's VoIP phone manufacturing industry continues its rapid  expansion.
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Samsung Electronics Co. will make a special 18-carat gold-plated mobile phone in China to mark next year's Olympics in Beijing.
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Chinese manufacturer ZTE may supply Sprint with handsets for upcoming high-speed WiMax.
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(InfoWorld) - The 2008 Summer Olympics is going to be China's coming out party, a chance for the country to show its modern face to the world. To that end, the Chinese government is pouring billions of dollars into new roads, modern stadiums, and an expanded subway network to prepare for the games. With less than 400 days until the opening ceremony on Aug. 8, 2008, workers and officials appear on track to have everything ready. Everything, that is, except 3G, or third-generation mobile technology. China remains one of the few Asian countriesÂ without 3G service, despite years of breakneck economic development and a love of high technology. Telecom analysts and industry insiders have long sought to divine the plans of China's Ministry of Information Industry (MII), which regulates the telecommunications sector, to give operators licenses for the technology. Year after year,Â the forecastÂ was always for licenses to be issued later this year or early next year. Eventually, most observers gave up guessing, tired of the game, as foreign equipment makers waited for a presumed surge in orders for 3G gear that never came. The main obstacle was TD-SCDMAÂ (Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access), a 3G standard that was largely developed in China and remains unproven. The Chinese government spent heavily on TD-SCDMA development, and officials won't give the go-ahead for 3G licenses until the technology is ready for deployment. When that might happen is anybody's guess. But TD-SCDMA trials are underway in several Chinese cities andÂ Nokia has handsets ready to shipÂ early next year, suggesting the technology may be close to commercial use. When Beijing won the bid to host the games, officials promised a "High-Tech Olympics" to highlight new technologies and showcase China's economic development. 3G was going to be one of the technologies on display. "We shall energetically develop the mobile communication technology of the third generation," the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) promised in documents compiled for the city's bid. After Beijing won the bid, China Mobile CommunicationsÂ (China Mobile), the country's largest mobile operator, described how it planned to use 3G. The company said visitors would be able to buy tickets for Olympic events and watch live video coverage on their 3G phones, as well as access information about restaurants, shopping and sightseeing. Athletes and staff would also use 3G to access information related to the games, it said. China's commitment to the use of 3G during the Olympics was reinforced last December by Wang Xudong, China's minister of information industry, who promised operators would have 3G licenses in time to build their networks for the Olympic games. BOCOG officials declined to answer questions concerning the use of 3G during the games, but analysts expect the government to deliver on its 3G commitment. "The Chinese government will not break its promise," said Kevin Li, an analyst at In-Stat China, in Beijing. But regulators have another hurdle to overcome before 3G licenses can be issued China's telecommunications industry is split along geographic and technological lines, with two fixed-line operators and two mobile operators, as well as several smaller players. Since this structure was created in 1999, the industry has changed, complicating the 3G licensing process. China had 110 million fixed-line phone subscribers and 33 million mobile subscribers at the end of 1999, according to government statistics. Fast forward to May 2007 and the numbers tell a very different story: China had 372 million fixed-line subscribers and 496 million mobile subscribers. The disparity in subscriber growth is reflected in the financial performance of China's fixed-line and mobile operators, especially China Mobile. China Mobile saw its revenue rise 24.9 percent during 2006, while China United Communications Corp. (China Unicom), the country's other mobile operator, saw revenue increase 11.3 percent. By comparison, fixed-line operators China Telecommunications (China Telecom) and China Network Communications GroupÂ (China Netcom) saw their revenue rise 6.3 percent and 4 percent, respectively. "China Mobile's growth has made it the envy of other operators in China," wrote Matt Walker, a senior analyst at Ovum, in a recent research note. To put operators on a more equal footing, China is widely expected to split up China Unicom, which operates both a GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) and CDMA networks. In this scenario, China Unicom's cellular operations would be divided between China Telecom and China Netcom, which do not currently offer cellular services, although both companies are involved in TD-SCDMA testing. But how the industry gets restructured is not up to MII alone. The State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), which oversees China's state-owned companies, plays a central role in the restructuring process, and will help determine which 3G technologies operators are allowed to use with their licenses. The National Development and Reform Commission and Ministry of Science and Technology also have a say in these decisions. Once the questions of TD-SCDMA's readiness and the industry restructuring are resolved, MII can issue 3G licenses . That's likely to happen during the first half of 2008, with licenses for TD-SCDMA, W-CDMA (Wideband CDMA), and CDMA2000 1X EV-DO (Evolution Data Optimized) networks granted simultaneously, In-Stat's Li said. But not all of these networks will be in service for the games. "At least one type of 3G service will be commercially available during the 2008 Olympics, but we are not sure which technology will be available," Li said. "That's up to the operators." The most likely bet is TD-SCDMA. Operators have already signed contracts to build TD-SCDMA networks in Beijing and other cities, including Qingdao, where the Olympic sailing events will be held. Similar deals have not yet been struck for W-CDMA and CDMA2000 1X EV-DO, giving the homegrown 3G technology a head start for the games. Â
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Almost 40 percent of Chinese own mobile phones, and the number of subscribers is likely to hit 500 million before the end of June.
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(InfoWorld) - Nokia is getting ready to ship mobile phones based on China's homegrown 3G (third-generation) mobile standard. The company plans to ship handsets based on TD-SCDMA (time division synchronous code division multiple access) early next year, said Thomas JÃ¶nsson, a spokesman for Nokia China. "We want to be there when the market is ready, and we think it will be ready during the first half of 2008," he said. JÃ¶nsson declined to discuss Nokia's TD-SCDMA handset plans in detail, including the number of handset models the company plans to make available. China does not currently permitÂ operators to offer 3G services. Equipment and handset makers have been waiting for Chinese regulators to issue 3G licenses, but officials have held off, giving TD-SCDMA's backers time to further develop the technology. With increasing signs that TD-SCDMA is ready for commercial services -- and a public commitment to make 3G services available during the 2008 Olympics in Beijing -- China appears close to issuing the long-awaited licenses. Since only China has announced plans to use TD-SCDMA for 3G services, Nokia handsets based on the technology are unlikely to be sold outside the country. China is one of Nokia's most important markets. Out of 347 million handsets sold by Nokia in 2006, 51 million of those went to customers in Greater China, a region that includes China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, JÃ¶nsson said. Counting revenue from both handsets and mobile infrastructure equipment, Greater China accounted for 13 percent of Nokia's total revenue, he said.
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Nokia saw sales soar in China last year as the world's largest maker of mobile phones started tapping the nation's huge rural market, according to state media.
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InfoWorld - The Chinese government will not issue licenses for 3G (third-generation) mobile services until the first quarter of 2008, according to a Chinese report.
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At the GSMA trade show in Barcelona, Spain, the latest high-end smartphones include Nokia's new flagship handset, the N96, a pair of impressive Cybershot camera phones from Sony Ericsson and more.
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China Mobile Communications, currently the largest operator of mobile communication services in China, will establish a 3G (third-generation) experimental network in Beijing at the beginning of next year, according to the China-based Xinhua Online.
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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;