China delays homegrown 3G rollout to Q4 2007
With China having just finalized their TD-SCDMA specification the skids were greased for a quick 3G deplyment, right China Mobile? Not so, big boy. After four years of waiting, the 1.3 billion Chinese will have to wait just a bit longer -- China's state controlled media is reporting that 3G testing has been extended into Q4 of 2007. While that's bad news for the 400 million or so current Chinese subscribers, it especially difficult for chip and handset makers who were counting on tapping that new revenue stream as early as Q1 of this year by some estimates -- a stream measured in tens of billions of dollars. On the flip side, that means 3G-enabled iPhone and BlackBerry clones will be delayed at least another 9 months as well... so it's not all bad news.[Thanks, Eric]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Eric @ Jan 30th 2007 4:18PM
This is going to put a dent in the country's plans to stream the olympics to millions of mobiles on new networks with home grown codecs. Good luck guys. Hope it turns out better than the floor of my condo in Beijing or that MIPS R10K clone they've been working on for the last 5 years.