Asian operators form ‘worldwide CDMA belt’

SEOUL, South Korea—CDMA operators LG Telecom of South Korea and Japan’s KDDI Corp. said they have set up a “worldwide CDMA belt” through a technology and marketing cooperation.
Under the plan, the two companies will ally with CDMA operators in Australia, China, India, Latin America, North America and Southeast Asia. Shunsuke Oyama, head of KDDI’s strategic planning operation, said cdma200 operators have an edge over W-CDMA carriers because cdma2000 technology requires less investment than W-CDMA networks.
KDDI already has an agreement with China Unicom, which launched a CDMA network in China earlier this year, but China Unicom has not seen strong customer up-take. Both KDDI and LG Telecom offer CDMA 1x services.