oeneo 2006-8-17 13:55
据称，中国可能在2007年中才发3G牌照
China may delay issuing licenses for high-speed mobile-phone services to the first half of 2007 because locally developed network technology isn't ready for commercial use, researcher Norson Telecom Consulting said.
"Considering the progress made in TD-SCDMA trials, as well as the maturity of the industry chain and the state of intellectual property rights negotiations, Norson predicts that China 3G licenses will be delayed once more until mid-2007," the Beijing-based researcher, which focuses on the nation's telecoms industry, said in a report.
Telecommunication companies in China, the world's biggest wireless market by subscribers, are looking to 3G services, which offer users faster downloads of videos and music on their handsets, to spur spending. Mobile-phone equipment makers such as Sweden's Ericsson AB and China's ZTE Corp. expect increased sales as domestic carriers build networks for 3G services.
China in January chose the homegrown time division synchronous code division multiple access, or TD-SCDMA, technology as one of its standards for so-called third-generation services. China has 426 million mobile users by end June, according to government data.
The government in February asked the parents of China Mobile Ltd, the nation's biggest mobile carrier, and the two biggest fixed-line operators, China Telecom Corp. and China Netcom Group Corp (H.K.) Ltd., to build trial 3G networks based on the TD- SCDMA standard. The trials are being carried out in the second- tier cities of Baoding, Qingdao and Xiamen.
China Telecom, the nation's biggest fixed-line company, is operating trial networks supplied by Datang Mobile Communications Equipment Co., Alcatel Shanghai Bell Co. and TD Tech Ltd., a venture between Siemens Communications and Huawei Technologies Ltd. in the northern city of Baoding.
China Netcom will manage trials in Qingdao in the eastern Shandong province, using equipment from Datang Mobile, Alcatel Shanghai Bell and ZTE Corp., the report said.
China Mobile, the world's biggest cell-phone operator by users, is running a trial network in the southern city of Xiamen using equipment from ZTE and TD Tech, the report said.
The third phase of the TD-SCDMA trials, which started in July, will focus on issues such as roaming between different networks and handset interoperability, Norson said.
The government may require China Mobile to build TD-SCDMA networks in key areas in the country to help build the home-grown 3G standard, Norson said.
The other two 3G technologies China is considering are wideband code-division multiple access, developed by companies including Nokia Oyj and Ericsson AB, and CDMA2000, developed by Qualcomm Inc., the world's second-biggest cell-phone chipmaker after Texas Instruments Inc.