China delays 3G licensing until after the Olympics
Talk about a delay -- China, which was expected to issue 3G licenses to its "top four" telecom operators, has now announced that the move will have to wait until they "come out of restructuring." As it currently stands, it will likely be after the 2008 Olympics before the licensing will ensue. Interestingly enough, information industry minister Wang Xudong has reportedly stated that "3G mobile phone services will be offered in the mainland in 2008 in time for the Beijing Olympics," but wouldn't that require issuance to take place before... beforehand? We'll keep you posted.[Via monoNews, image courtesy of 3G]
Filed under: China Unicom, Misc
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jamar @ Jul 5th 2007 8:12AM
Whoa, whoa. Top *4*? China Mobile (WCDMA), China Unicom (EVDO), China Telecom (TD-SCDMA),... who's the fourth? Looking at the photo, looks like it might be SK Telecom making an entry into China (better not be using the Helio name, though- only the ex-pats here use Myspace).
carlo @ Jul 5th 2007 10:31AM
Heheee... Minister Wang.
ivanpan @ Jul 5th 2007 1:12PM
The forth one is China Netcom, who operates fixed line in northern China (China Telecom was broken up into China Telecom and China Netcom a few years ago, one owns the fixed line assets in the north, the other owns network in the south). China Unicom will sell its GSM network to China Netcom, and CDMA network to China Telecom. Therefore, it should be China Telecom (EVDO), China Mobile (TD-SCDMA) and China Netcom (WCDMA).
Jamar @ Jul 5th 2007 7:50PM
Just lovely. I'm in Shanghai and have only barely heard of China Netcom (they have little more than a token presence here). So that means that only northern China gets WCDMA? That sucks- massively.
But wait- what happens to China Unicom? They're getting a 3G license too, but according to you, no network to use it with. Or are they still keeping their network in those places outside Telecom/Netcom's markets (Shanghai and south of that for Netcom, vice-versa for Telecom)?