3G licenses Far from Release
The timetable has been extended from this year to the middle of next year to clear up possible restructuring in the telecom market and complete patent negotiations, a Beijing-based consulting firm said yesterday.
The development of homegrown third-generation technology, which earlier influenced the schedule, is now on track, however, industry officials said.
“Considering the factors, our most optimistic expectation for the issuance of 3G licenses is the middle of 2007,” Norson Telecom Consulting said in a report. “At that time, only one TD- SCDMA license will be issued first to show the government’s support for its homegrown technology.”
China Mobile will adopt the time division-synchronous code division multiple access network, according to Norson.
Previously, most industry officials and investment banks, including UBS AG, expected China to launch licenses by the end of this year or at the beginning of 2007. And earlier forecasts put the issue date at the middle of this year.
China plans to issue only three licenses for the higher- data flow services, so the telecom industry is widely expected to restructure prior to the start of the licensing process.
China Telecom, the country’s biggest fixed-line phone carrier, plans to buy China Unicom’s CDMA network, as part of the restructuring.
Telecom industry restructuring, including China Netcom’s move to acquire China Unicom’s GSM (global system for mobile communications) operations, won’t be wrapped up in the near term, industry insiders said.
On the patent issue, the biggest bottleneck is that US- based chip designer Qualcomm has not agreed to lower patent fees for Chinese manufacturers.
“It is not a problem that can be solved within a year,” said an official at ZTE Corp who declined to be identified.
Since 2002, the telecommunications industry has lost count of the number of times China has delayed the issue of 3G licenses. The industry had thought the nation’s first 3G licenses might be issued May 17, World Telecommunications Day, but nothing happened.
MII officials, who said in public previously that China will issue 3G licenses this year, declined to comment on the timetable now.
There are three available 3G technologies, which provide high transfer data speed and allow users to download movies and hold video conferences on cell phones. They are the U.S.- developed CDMA2000(Code Division Multiple Access 2000), European-developed WCDMA(Wideband CDMA) and China’s TD- SCDMA(Time Division-Synchronous CDMA).
Analysts said China will issue a national TD-SCDMA license first, then issue two other licenses later to support the homegrown standard. China’s standard is not fully ready for commercial use, which forced the government to delay issuing the licenses.
The 3G licenses will be issued later. The(government- supported) TD-SCDMA Forum said recently the TD-SCDMA test is expected to complete in the third quarter compared to an earlier timetable of June 30, Dong Xiaoyang, Norson’s analyst, said in the statement.
Currently, the TD-SCDMA technology is being tested in Qingdao in Shandong Province, Baoding in Hebei Province, and Xiamen in Fujian Province. By the end of this year, the annual production capacity of TD-SCDMA phones will hit 1 million units, according to the TD-SCDMA Forum.
China Telecom, the country’s biggest fixed-line phone operator, said it can provide services on the TD-SCDMA network in eight months.
By comparison, WCDMA and CDMA are used in more than 200 3G networks globally and their technologies and services are mature.
Source- http://www.tmcnet.com
Technorati : 3G, China, China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom
Ice Rocket : 3G, China, China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom
