BEIJING—In a report entitled “Management and Development of China Telecom in 2003,” equipment manufacturer Zhongxing Telecom (ZTE) predicted fixed-line carrier China Telecom will adopt W-CDMA technology as its third-generation (3G) standard instead of the homegrown TD-SCDMA technology.
China Telecom would build a trial network in seven Chinese cities, including Shanghai.
The Ministry of Information Industry (MII) is expected to grant mobile licenses to the two fixed-line carriers China Netcom and China Telecom later this year or in early 2004.
China Unicom is expected to adopt cdma2000, while China Mobile will most probably migrate from GSM to W-CDMA technology. That leaves China Netcom to save the honor of TD-SCDMA, a standard jointly developed by Datang Mobile Communications and Germany’s Siemens. For more information on the use of TD-SCDMA technology in China, see TD-SCDMA unlikely to see adoption outside China.
In related China Telecom news, Lu Guoying, an analyst with CCID Consulting, told the 2003 China Telecom Market Annual Forum in Beijing that the number of Little Smart subscribers is set to more than double from 11 million last year to 24 million in 2003.
Little Smart is a wireless limited mobility service offered by China Telecom and China Netcom.
According to Lu, Little Smart users make up one-fifth of China Netcom’s and China Telecom’s new customers. The increase in fixed-line telephone subscribers is markedly slowing down, while the fixed-line carriers are eager to enter the mobile market, and are offering the limited mobility service until they are able to secure mobile licenses.
