China Mobile

Bridgewater to participate in LTE Interoperability Tests

On 03.16.10, In Mobile Marketing, By Editor

Bridgewater has announced that it will be participating in the Global MultiService Forum (MSF) interoperability testing event. This event will take place at Vodafone’s Centre for Test and Innovation in Dusseldorf and the China Mobile Research Institute Lab in Beijing. The focus of the testing is on validating Evolved Packet Core network interfaces to enable multi-vendor deployment strategies for LTE (Long Term Evolution) technology.

The MSF event will promote and foster compatibility and interoperability with leading network equipment vendors and operators including Vodafone, China Mobile, NEC, Starent Networks, Huawei, ZTE, Alcatel Lucent, Agilent and Codenomicon.

The event will prove out to be an important step towards validating MSF architectural framework release 5 for LTE, developed to incorporate 3GPP System Architecture Evolution.

Tagged with: 3G • Beijing • Bridgewater • China • China Mobile • Huawei • Quipment • Vodafone

China Mobile confirms purchase of 20% stake in of Shanghai Pudong

On 03.15.10, In Mobile Marketing, By Editor

China Mobile announced its entry into the share subscription agreement with Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, through its wholly-owned subsidiary-China Mobile Group Guangdong Company Limited.

China Mobile is considered to be the world’s largest mobile operator in terms of number of subscribers. The company grabbed 2,207,511,410 A shares to be issued by SPD Bank by way of private placement, representing 20% of the issued shares of SPD Bank as enlarged by the subscription.

The selling price of each share was 18.3 RMB (about HK$ 20.50) which brought the total consideration for the subscription to 39.8 billion RMB (approximately HK$45.3 billion).

As a part of the deal, China Mobile has also entered into a strategic cooperation memorandum of understanding with SPD Bank (which will lead into a strategic cooperation agreement) to jointly work on development of mobile e-commerce services.

Tagged with: A Mobile • China • China Mobile • E-Commerce • Guangdong • Mobile • Pudong • Shanghai

China Mobile receives green signal for Taiwan unit

On 03.06.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: China mobile has been given the permission to establish a subsidiary in Taiwan, expected to pave the way for the telco to buy a stake in local operator Far EasTone.

The application received by Taiwanese government states that China Mobile’s new unit plans to wholesale electronics materials and it has been claimed that the subsidiary will be used as a vehicle for investing in local player Far EasTone. 100% stake in a new company in Taiwan has been revealed by China Mobile’s chairman Wang Jianzhou.

Intentions of China Mobile, the world’s biggest mobile phone operator by subscribers to buy a stake in Far EasTone first came into light in April 2009 and it was announced by the operator that it had agreed to pay $527 million for a 12% holding.

100 countries were opened in Taiwan for investment by companies based in mainland China in which telecom sector was not included and even after winning the approval of Far EasTone’s board in June, the government never approved its deal with China Mobile.

Terms of Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) is still being discussed by the two countries. ECFA is a trade deal considered particularly contentious by Taiwan’s opposition Democratic Progressive Party, which views the deal as an underhand attempt to unify the island with mainland China.

Tagged with: ASIA • China • China Mobile • Far Eastone • operator • Taiwan

Etisalat concerned by low Pakistani ARPUs

On 03.03.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Lowest average revenue per user has been delivered by Etisalat’s Pakistani subsidiary when compared to its other overseas operations. Etisalat generates ARPUs of $49 in its home market while Pakistan Telecom Company’s (PTCL’s) ARPUs have fallen to just US$3.

According to Etisalat chairman Mohammad Omran, the telco is increasing its focus on its international operations where its subsidiaries contribute 10% of revenues but the company aims to increase this to 20% by 2013.

Etisalat’s acquisition of 26% stake in PTCL for $2.6 billion in 2005, which was completed after facing a stiff competition from China Mobile, SingTel and others, failed to live up to Etisalat’s expectation.

Tagged with: Acquisition • ARPU • ASIA • Average Revenue Per User • China • China Mobile • Etisalat • Pakistan • PTCL • SingTel

MTN, Bharti & Zain emerge as highest revenue generators

On 03.03.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Over the last three years, an average growth of 45% in the revenue has been recorded by 16 leading service providers. The wireless service providers in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, India and China achieved the highest growth.

MTN, Bharti and Zain have doubled their revenues in the last three years, thus leading the growth charge. Even larger companies like America Movil, China Mobile and Vodafone have recorded growth in the 45%-70% range.

Collectively generating over 55% of their revenues from beyond their home markets, Telefonica, Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom have all taken great strides in the past to build businesses beyond their home countries.

Tagged with: Africa • ASIA • China Mobile • Deutsche Telekom • France Telecom • India • Latin America • Middle East • MTN • Telefonica • Vodafone • Zain

China Mobile to buy 20% stake in Pudong Bank

On 02.26.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news Following Shanghai Pudong Development Bank’s announcement to enlist strategic investors, including China Mobile, the world’s biggest wireless operator, its shares were suspended from trading on Friday.

20 per cent stake in the bank, which is 3.8 per cent owned by Citigroup, is planned to be sold to China Mobile for about Rmb40bn ($5.9bn).

Pudong Development is one of the many Chinese state-controlled banks that are seeking to raise funds to shore up their balance sheets recently.

A year of unprecedented loan growth and the introduction of stricter capital requirements by regulators have been attributed behind the move by the company.

Tagged with: ASIA • China • China Mobile • Mobile • Shanghai Pudong Development Bank

Mobile operators join force on global apps platform

On 02.16.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: An open international applications platform has been launched by a joint force of the world’s largest mobile operators. This marks the largest unified move to date by the operator community into the mobile apps space.

A combination of 24 of the world’s largest mobile carriers, the so called ‘Wholesale Applications Community’ includes America Movil, AT&T, Bharti Airtel, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, KT, mobilkom Austria, MTN Group, NTT Docomo, Orange, Orascom Telecom, Telecom Italia, Telefonica, Telenor, TeliaSonera, SingTel, SK Telecom, Sprint, VimpelCom and WIND.

Vodafone, China Mobile, SoftBank and Verizon Wireless in the Joint Innovation Lab (JIL) mobile apps initiative are also included in the group. The move has been backed by GSMA, an industry association. The aim of the alliance is to create a wholesale platform for mobile apps providing a single point-of-entry for developers. Operators are also eyeing the revenue-generating potential of getting into the apps business.

The new operator-led initiative has also got the support from the handset vendors including LG, Samsung and Sony Ericsson.

Tagged with: Airtel • alliance • Austria • China • China Mobile • China Unicom • Deutsche Telekom • Ericsson • GSM • GSMA • Launch • LG • Mobilkom • MTN • NTT DoCoMo • operator • Orange • Orascom • Samsung • SingTel • SK Telecom • Sony • Sprint • Telecom Italia • Telefonica • Telenor • TeliaSonera • Verizon Wireless • VimpelCom • Wholesale Applications Community

China’s 3G handset market to gear up by subsidies

On 02.05.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The domestic shipments of 3G handsets in China is expected to boost up in 2010 because of aggressive subsidies from wireless carriers that reduce consumer pricing for cell phones. The shipments may go up to 42.97 million units in 2010, up from 7.2 million in 2009.

According to a research analyst, because of the subsidies, phones using the Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA) air standard that is backed by the Chinese government will generate the bulk of growth in 2010. Domestic shipments of TD-SCDMA phones will rise to 20.4 million units in 2010, up from 1.3 million in 2009.

The price of the 3G cell phones becomes more attractive due to these subsidies and is expected to drive up sales despite the lack of value-added data services for the TD-SCDMA air standard.

China Mobile, expected to offer the phones to the public might increase its total subsidies to consumers to RMB30 billion in 2010, up from RMB12 billion in 2009.

Tagged with: 3G • ASIA • CDMA • China • China Mobile • code division multiple access • Division Multiple Access • TD-SCDMA

China Mobile tops the list of mobile subscription in December

On 01.21.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: 8.89 million mobile customers were added by China’s communications firms in December, with the total of 723.86 million mobile users. China Unicom had a total of 145.49 million mobile customers by December 2009, which comprised 144.85 million 2G subscribers and 2.74 million 3G customers. 1.56 million new subscribers were added by Unicom in a month.

China Mobile ended 2009 with 522.28 million mobile customers, of which 3.41 million are 3G customers, up from 2.97 million in November. 4.24 million new customers were added by the operator in December. However, Unicom lost 2.11 million fixed-line customers and China Mobile shed 2.53 million fixed-line users in 2009.

The number of broadband customers of both the operators increased with Unicom gaining 219,000 broadband customers and China mobile gaining 620,000.

Tagged with: 3G • ASIA • China • China Mobile • China Unicom • operator

China Mobile to introduce 4G Network by May 2010

On 01.18.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: By introducing the 4G mobile communications network in China by mid-year, China Mobile will become the first in the world to provide 4G service. The company has planned to launch 4G mobile communications network at the Shanghai Expo held in May and then provide a trial test for users from May to October. The rate of success has still not been revealed.

4th generation system known as TD-LTE (Time Division – Long Term Evolution) will be used in China Mobile’s 4G mobile communication network which is an upgraded version of 3rd generation system known as the TD-SCDMA.

The transmission speed of TD-LTE is 20 times faster than the 3G communication network.

Tagged with: 3G • 4G • ASIA • CDMA • China • China Mobile • Long Term Evolution • Shanghai Expo • TD-LTE • TD-SCDMA