China Telecom (Hong Kong) in late April announced the purchase of Jiangsu Mobile Communication for US$2.9 billion. China Telecom said the purchase gives it close to 4.8 million cellular subscribers in China, according to The Wall Street Journal. Jiangsu, one of China’s largest and most economically developed provinces, has a population of 71 million.
Lucent Technologies Inc. sold a CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data) system to China Telecom for its first public wireless data communications network.
L.M. Ericsson has signed an agreement with Zi Corporation of Canada whereby Ericsson will embed Zi’s input method of Chinese characters into its mobile phones. Handsets not only will have Chinese character displays but also the functionality to input Chinese characters.
Nokia Telecommunications signed an agreement with the Post and Telecommunications Administration (PTA) Bureau of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region to expand the Ningxia PTA’s GSM 900 MHz network. The expansion will allow the carrier to provide short message service to its subscribers, said Nokia.
Motorola’s Cellular Infrastructure Group said it was awarded a US$42 million contract to expand China United Telecommunications Corp.’s GSM network in the Jiangsu province of China. The expansion will increase the digital network’s capacity from 80,000 subscribers to 325,000 subscribers.
Finland-based Tecnomen announced it signed a contract valued at about US$2 million with Chinese operator Tianjin Toll Telecommunications Bureau to expand the capacity of its GSM messaging system to 135,000 subscribers. The expansion will allow TTTB to offer value-added services such as message notification, said Tecnomen. TTTB, a regional operator, is part of the national company China Telecom.
Siemens Public Communication Network Group signed a contract with operator Anhui PTA to expand its GSM network. Siemens will provide 10 switching systems and more than 500 base stations to boost the carriers network capacity from its current 300,000 subscribers to more than 1.1 million subscribers by year-end 1998. Siemens also received an order from Shanghai PTA to expand its mobile phone network.
