HONG KONG-Even though the Chinese paging market is teeming with around 1,700 operators, the market remains heavily regulated. Even paging operators in the well-heeled southern and southeastern Chinese provinces of Guangdong, Fujian and Zhejiang continue to face the same strict regulations as their counterparts...
BEIJING-China Unicom has big ambitions. That's no big news. When it was established in 1994, the company hoped to capture one-third of the mobile phone market and a 10th of the fixed-line market by 2000. However, today it has less than a 2-percent market...
AustraliaLeap Wireless International announced that it is selling its wholly owned Australian subsidiary, OzPhone Pty. Ltd., to an affiliate of AAPT Ltd., Australia's third-largest telecommunications company, for Australian $25 million (US$16.3 million). OzPhone holds licenses covering 6 million potential customers in numerous regions. The...
FranceFrance Telecom said it signed a partnership agreement with the Sonae group in Portugal. The two already have a working relationship as stakeholders in Optimus, the third mobile operator in Portugal. The new partnership would be held 43.33 percent by France Telecom and 56.67...
AlcatelAustria. With Tele.ring for its new GSM 1800 network.Value: US$298 millionEricssonBrazil. With Telecom Italia Mobile to expand its TDMA network.Value: US$100 millionChina. With China Telecom (Hong Kong) Ltd. for GSM equipment to expand its network in Guangdong province.Value: US$290 millionFinland. With Sonera for a GPRS system.Value: UndisclosedJapan. With...
BEIJING-China's telecom scene is in flux. China Telecom is to split into four parts, which will compete in two year's time. China Unicom took over four experimental CDMA networks from China Telecom Great Wall and is making aggressive plans to roll out a 10-million-subscriber...
China Unicom, which received the go-ahead from the Chinese government earlier this year to deploy cdmaOne technology, will gain control of four experimental Code Division Multiple Access networks operated by China Telecom Great Wall.Great Wall was a source of concern for the Chinese government...
BEIJING-In early February, China's Minister of Information Industry (MII) was apologetic about the prospects for CDMA in his country. The customers couldn't care less which technology is used-as long as it works, said Wu Jichuan. And with the world's largest GSM network, there seemed...
BEIJING (AP)-China announced the breakup last week of the government's telecommunications monopoly into four specialized companies, a move that comes as U.S. and Chinese negotiators hold down-to-the-wire talks on China's bid to join the World Trade Organization.The long-awaited decision on the dismemberment of China...
BEIJING-Chinese officials may be close to deciding how to split up China Telecom, the government-run telecommunications company.Chinese newspapers last week reported that a plan to split the company into four independent parts seemed to be on its way to gaining approval from policymakers. That...
BEIJING-"The investigation into China Unicom's unprincipled and wrong foreign fund-raising practices has been completed," Wang Jianzhou, director of the planning department of the Chinese Ministry of Information Industry (MII), announced at a press conference in Beijing on 1 December. That's pretty close to saying...
A move by the Chinese government is sure to develop a new wireless telecommunications landscape in China but also may create an uncertain future for foreign wireless infrastructure and handset vendors selling equipment there.The Chinese government is urging the country's wireless operators to purchase...
Some analysts are expecting Code Division Multiple Access infrastructure spending to taper off in 1999 as cdmaOne infrastructure deployments in China remain questionable."I think China is the lynch pin for CDMA infrastructure going into next year and to a certain extent greater Asia," said...
China has been considered a mountain of opportunity for mobile phone infrastructure vendors, but signs today indicate a bleaker outlook as Chinese officials seem to have soured on cdmaOne technology and have banned certain foreign joint ventures in telecommunications projects.Vendors say China presents a...
NEW YORK-At least in the short run, prospects for deployment of large-scale Code Division Multiple Access networks in the People's Republic of China are on hold.However, the longer-term outlook could be brighter, according to Boston-based Information Gatekeepers Inc., which hosted a recent China Telecom...
An old Chinese saying may be relevant to the commercialization of CDMA mobile phone networks in China-"Those who know don't talk, and those who talk don't know"-at least on the record.When will Code Division Multiple Access networks be launched commercially in China? No one...
BEIJING-In its latest proposal to gain entry to the World Trade Organization (WTO), China offered on 24 July to open gradually its paging and mobile phone operating services to foreign competition. Currently, foreign companies only are allowed to engage in manufacturing of telecommunications equipment,...
BEIJING-China Telecom announced it signed up its 20 millionth mobile phone customer, a police officer named Zhang Qinghua in the scenic city of Hangzhou, at precisely 8: 45 a.m. on 18 August. In the first half of the year, China Telecom signed up 5.45 million...
Across most of the world's regions, carriers and analysts are claiming prepaid cellular a resounding success. Along with calling party pays, it is considered one of the leading contributors to current subscriber growth.Some carriers now are getting more than half of new subscribers through...
BEIJING-China Telecom is still very much a monopoly carrier in China, but change is on the horizon.By year-end, the new Ministry of Information Industry will have concluded its massive restructuring and finally may be ready to accept a sweeping new telecom law restricting its...
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill.-Motorola Inc.'s Cellular Infrastructure Group was awarded several contracts in China to provide Global System for Mobile communications infrastructure.They include a $21 million contract to increase system capacity by 180,000 in the Shanxi province, a trial Rapid Deployment Vehicle system with China...
BANGKOK, Thailand-Cellular and PCS operators in the Asia-Pacific region have doubled from 56 in 1993 to the current 113, according to the Yankee Group's recently released "Asia-Pacific Wireless Series." The research firm expects the region will house 184 million users or 34 percent of...
China Telecom (Hong Kong) in late April announced the purchase of Jiangsu Mobile Communication for US$2.9 billion. China Telecom said the purchase gives it close to 4.8 million cellular subscribers in China, according to The Wall Street Journal. Jiangsu, one of China's largest and...
