BEIJING-China’s largest telecom equipment vendor China Putian Corporation, plans to build a 500 million yuan (US$60.41 million) plant to produce Xiaolintong wireless handsets to be used on China Telecom’s and China Netcom’s fixed-line networks.
The China Putian Group had revenues of 64.2 billion yuan (US$7.76 billion) last year. The group has 50 subsidiaries, including five listed companies, Beijing Capitel Group, Shanghai Posts & Telecommunications Equipment Company, Chengdu Cable, Nanjing Putian and Ningbo Bird.
Another Xiaolintong producer, UTStarcom, sold more than 3 million handsets in China last year. The company expects the number of users to reach 25 million by the end of next year, up from 10 million in October and 4 million at the end of last year.
Capital expenditure for Xiaolintong is just 500 yuan (US$60.41) per line, compared with 1,500 yuan (US$181.22) per fixed line and a monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) of 60 yuan to 65 yuan (US$7.25 to US$7.85) compared with 30 yuan to 40 yuan (US$3.62 to US$4.83) for fixed-line services, according to UTStarcom President Wu Ying, quoted in the South China Morning Post.
