China GrenTech wins China Mobile contract for Olympics
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China GrenTech Corp. Ltd.   said it won a bid to supply wireless network equipment to China  Mobile (0941.HK), the world&#39;s largest mobile phone operator,  for next year&#39;s Olympic Games, sending the Chinese wireless  services company&#39;s shares up.
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By de Jonquieres, Julian  CHINA Google and China Mobile are to cooperate on mobile search facilities as both continue their diversification of services in the mainland.
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South Korea's top mobile carrier SK Telecom said it has agreed with the Chinese government to cooperate in developing third-generation (3G) mobile technologies.
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Qualcomm , the world&#39;s top  mobile chip designer, said on Wednesday China recently passed  Japan to become its second largest Asian market, as it unveiled  a major tie-up with leading smartphone maker HTC (2498.TW).
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China signed contracts Monday worth nearly &#36;2.1 billion to buy 23 Airbus jetliners and other German industrial goods.
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BEIJING - A consortium of Japanese firms led by Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. won a $12 billion contract to provide high-speed trains to China, Xinhua news agency said on Monday.
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AWB Ltd., Australia&#39;s monopoly wheat exporter, won a contract worth about A$340 million ($267 million) to supply China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Corp.
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China Mobile said Monday its parent company, the country's largest handset operator, has temporarily terminated talks with the US-based Apple Inc. about introducing the iPhone to the Chinese market.
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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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Research In Motion Ltd. has won  permission to sell its BlackBerry device in China after eight  years of effort, the Globe and Mail newspaper said on  Wednesday.
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Huawei Technologies, China&#39;s leading telecommunications equipment maker, will build a third-generation network for Telfort, the Dutch mobile operator, its first such contract in Europe.
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China.com said it signed advertising contracts  with Google Inc. and China Mobile Ltd. to further expand its  strategic partnerships with the companies.
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STOCKHOLM -- Ericsson has been awarded a USD 805 million contract by Guangdong Mobile Communication Corporation Limited (Guangdong Mobile) to expand its GSM network in Guangdong Province, China.
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Research In Motion Ltd. has won permission to sell its BlackBerry device in China after eight years of effort, the Globe and Mail newspaper said on Wednesday.
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China&#39;s largest telecoms equipment maker, Huawei Technologies, clinched its first European contract for a third-generation mobile network yesterday, underlining its threat to bigger international rivals.
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Nokia Siemens Networks won a $900 million contract from India's largest mobile phone operator, Bharti Airtel Ltd., to help expand its communications network, both companies said Tuesday.
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(InfoWorld) - When Beijing won the right to host theÂ 2008 Summer Olympic Games, officials promised to use it as a showcase for new technology and China's economic development. But the reality is that while the games will display the world's top athletic talent, it will be using old, mature technologies. A lot of new technologies, and even some mature ones, have already beenÂ cut from the roster. Microsoft Windows Vista, for example, won't be the OS used on any of the PCs responsible for vital functions at the Olympics; its predecessor Windows XP will. WLAN (wireless LAN) didn't make the grade either. All networking for the games will be done by wireline. Officials have even prepared a mobile Web site for the Olympics based on WAP (Wireless Application Protocol), instead of GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) or 3G (third generation). The site is designed to provide up-to-the-minute scoring information, and it's already online. "We're only using proven technologies at the games," said Hou Xinyi, deputy director of the technology department at the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, which has taken the acronym, BOCOG. If China's 3G system is up and running by the end of this year, the official Web site for mobile users will be more useful to people, he added. So far,Â China hasn't said when it will start issuing 3G licenses. The nice thing about WAP is its reliability and usability. Most wireless networks can be used with it, including CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access), GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications), PHS (Personal Handy-phone System), TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access), and most OSes allow people to read information from WAP sites. It's just not as fast as 3G, not by a long shot. But while the technology may be lacking, attendees to the 2008 Summer Olympic Games will be treated to some spectacular design work. Not only are some of the stadiums being built for the games unique -- and unusual for Beijing -- the torch to be used in the round-the-world relay is also easy on the eyes. And it was developed by a PC vendor, China's own Lenovo Group. Lenovo won the design contest for the 2008 Olympic torch. The company's PC designers came up with a 72 centimeter tall, 985 gram aluminum torch in the shape of an ancient Chinese scroll. The torch is two colors, split in half in the same manner as the Yin-Yang symbol, said Y.J. Yao, a vice president at Lenovo and head of the design teams. The upper half of the torch is silver with cloud designs outlined in red, while the lower half is red, covered by a special paint with a rubbery feel, a no-slip safeguard so runners won't drop it if they're sweating during their 400-meter portion of the global torch run. Originally, the company thought about using a dragon design on the top of the torch, but "the dragon is a symbol for the emperor, not for everyone, so we can't accept the dragon," Yao said. The cloud is for everyone, and represents the coming together of heaven and earth, he added. The name of the torch is the Cloud of Promise. The form of the torch -- the scroll design -- denotes paper, a useful item and a Chinese invention, Yao said. The color was chosen via a survey. "We asked, what color is China? Over 99 percent of respondents said red," Yao said. The color represents fire and warmth, friendliness and luck. People who like pictures of the torch might be interested in buying one of the laptop PCs Lenovo designed using the torch colors and styles. The company plans to auction off 2008 of them online and donate the proceeds to charity. EbayÂ is helping with the auction, but it won't be an eBay URL (uniform resource locator), said Yao. "We have a passion for the Olympic Games," Yao said. "You know, when it's happening in your city, you have a passion for this." The other top Olympic-related design work has gone into the new National Stadium, referred to by many as the Bird's Nest due to its unorthodox construction. The opening and closing ceremonies of the Summer Olympic Games will take place in the stadium. The exterior of the 91,000 seat stadium resembles a bird's nest, a steel exoskeleton wrapped around the outside of the site. The design is bold, and striking. It's hard to tell how it's going over with local Beijing residents, though. Many complain that there's nothing Chinese about it and one of the best comments this reporter heard on a recent trip to the city was "I guess it will take some getting used to." Beside the Bird's Nest is the National Aquatics Center, where all swimming and water sports events will take place. Based on the geometry of water bubbles and crystals, the center was nicknamed the Water Cube because of the design of its light blue and white outer membrane. The Cloud of Promise, Bird's Nest and Water Cube are all attempts at innovative design. Unfortunately, the technology used at the games won't be quite so bold. Â