Along with exporting a trillion Happy Meal toys, China proved once again last week it is king in the export business.
It seems Denver’s recent hazy skies were not from our own pollution, but exported from the China-Mongolian border. Hundreds of thousands of tons of dust have been making their way from China’s industrial center to the Western United States via a jet stream. Authorities assured people that the pollution wasn’t more harmful than usual, but oh by the way, arsenic is one of the pollutants in the dust and people with any respiratory ailments should stay inside for a few days. The haze stretches from Canada to Texas and is headed toward the Great Lakes as I write this. (On a side note, guess where all of the U.S. pollution blows? Europe.)
What does that have to do with telecom, you say? Nothing. But I thought you should know that I may be a little biased in my attitude toward China because I am breathing air laced with arsenic (What type of manufacturing gives off arsenic as a byproduct?)
As China and the United States continue to spar over spy planes, leveraging the 2008 Olympics host site and entry into the World Trade Organization as bargaining chips, I grow increasingly suspicious that wireless firms-especially U.S. wireless firms-will gain easy access to China’s 1.3 billion potential wireless users.
Nothing appears to be easy when the U.S. and China are involved. Nevertheless, Motorola Inc. maintains it has a good working relationship in China and actually holds a leadership position by partnering with Chinese companies. Qualcomm Inc. has fought tooth and nail to gain a 3G foothold in China and plans to be a force there.
Perhaps the company with the most to gain from open access to the Chinese market is German-based Siemens AG because Siemens is helping to develop TD-SCDMA technology, a technology almost guaranteed adoption in China because it has the blessing of the government.
China does not plan to be left out of the 3G game, and TD-SCDMA is its ball. The country also increasingly is looking to export wireless handsets. Africa is the first target market.
So while the U.S. telecom equipment makers look to China as its cash cow, remember China also is looking to become a force in the wireless world. And it’s an expert at the export game.
