BEIJING—Only five of the 19 authorized vendors of CDMA handsets in China have released their models on the Chinese market. The latest was Datang, which launched its DT618 handset priced at 2,580 yuan (US$312). Motorola, Hisense, Haier and Eastcom are already selling CDMA handsets.
Morgan Stanley analyst Lina Choi told Reuters that only 300,000 CDMA handsets were available on the Chinese market at the end of 2001, much less than the expected 2 million. CDMA operator China Unicom expects 400,000 more units to become available before the end of February.
Morgan Stanley expects China Unicom to have 7.5 million to 8 million CDMA subscribers by the end of 2002, but monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) is expected to be only 60 yuan to 70 yuan (US$7.25 to US$8.46), less than the 96 yuan (US$11.60) on the company’s GSM network.
