Nokia Siemens Networks to participate in large scale China TD-LTE trial
With the approval of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People’s Republic of China (MIIT), Nokia Siemens Networks has become one of the first telecommunications equipment vendors to participate in the large-scale TD-LTE trial with China Mobile.
Nokia Siemens Networks will offer its commercial 2.3GHz/2.6GHz TD-LTE equipment, professional services and management software to conduct the major field trial in Hangzhou.
Nokia Siemens Networks has already completed both 2.3 and 2.6GHz outdoor, and 2.3GHz indoor, single-system testing with TD-LTE. The company is one of the first global vendors to be selected for the large-scale TD-LTE field trials with China Mobile. In addition, Nokia Siemens Networks has conducted interoperability tests of its TD-LTE equipment with a number of TD-LTE devices of major suppliers. As stated by MIIT, Nokia Siemens Networks will cooperate with China Mobile to accelerate network construction, equipment installation, and network optimization according to the overall requirements and plan of the large-scale TD-LTE trial in Hangzou.
Nokia Siemens Networks has built a complete TD-LTE business in China, integrating procurement, production, testing and maintenance with its Hangzhou R&D Center at the center of this value chain,†said Markus Borchert, head of Greater China customer operations at Nokia Siemens Networks. The approval by MIIT confirms our long-term support for TDLTE and our leadership driving the global ecosystem for unpaired frequency bands.â€
In addition to its market-leading Single RAN Advanced radio equipment, Nokia Siemens Networks will provide network planning and network optimization services to ensure sustained network quality and performance. Configuration, monitoring and optimization for this project will be based on the company’s Network Management System, NetAct.
China Mobile to begin commercial 4G testing in 7 cities
China Mobile Ltd. will reportedly start large-scale commercial testing of its fourth-generation service in seven cities by the second quarter of 2012.
As per the company’s previous statement, it would start testing the technology, called TD-LTE, in six cities, with help from the country’s Ministry of Industry & Information Technology. An MIIT official stated in January that the tests would last about 1.5 years.
According to reports, data cards using the TD-LTE technology that connect laptops to the internet will be available as early as the second half of 2012.
China’s 3G subscriber base passes 50 mn mark
China’s 3G subscribers have surpassed the 50 million mark – three years after networks first launched their commercial services. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) stated that it expects the numbers to increase to 150 million by the end of this year.
According to statistics from China Mobile, it had a total of 22.6 million 3G users in January, while China Unicom had 15.47 million and China Telecom attracted 13.64 million.
According to reports, now telecom carriers have a large number of subsidized 3G phones available to attract users, which will intensify the competition between China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom.
For historic comparison, at the end of May 2010, the country had 20 million 3G subscribers and 38.64 million by the end of October 2010.
China Mobile to commence TD-LTE trials in Q1’11
China Mobile will initiate TD-LTE trials in six cities in the first quarter of 2011, indicating the operator is edging closer to a commercial launch.
The operator will deploy over 3,000 TD-LTE base stations, including 2,500 outdoors and 500 indoors- in Beijing, Shanghai, Gaungzhou, Nanjing, Shenzhen and Xiamen.
According to ccid.com, China Mobile will use the 1.9GHz frequency band for the outdoor networks, while the indoor networks, will run on the 2.3 GHz band.
According to Yu Shengduo, a Director at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the MIIT has completed tests on 2.6-GHz TD-LTE equipment and chips, and is now focusing on 2.3GHz TD-LTE gear.
According to ccid.com, companies like Samsung, Qualcomm and ZTE have been actively involved in tests of the TD-LTE chipset.
According to China Mobile’s previous statement, it planned to launch TD-LTE in the third quarter of 2011 but the plan was reportedly postponed to 2012 due to slow development of chipsets and handsets.
To speed up TD-LTE chip and handset development, China Mobile has reinforced its partnership with OEMs, handset makers and chipset manufacturers in Taiwan.
China’s 3G subscriber base reaches 38.6 Million
The world’s largest mobile market, China has reported that its 3G users have tripled year-on-year reaching 38.6 million by the end of October, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). Approximately 25.38 million users were new subscribers in the past year.
The number of 3G users of each of China’s top three telecommunication operators, China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom, exceeded 10 million by the end of October.
Earlier this month, the ministry revealed that China aimed to have 150 million 3G mobile users by 2011, while investment in 3G development would hit US$59.99 billion.
According to MIIT, the number of mobile phone users were up by 94.83 million to reach 842 million during the Jan-Oct period, while fixed-line subscribers decreased by 13.65 million to about 300 million during the same period.
China Mobile, with 575 million subscribers as of the end of October, now is the world’s largest mobile carrier.
China’s telecommunication industry reported US$109.53 billion in revenues during the first ten months of 2010, up 6.6% year on year.
MIIT added that business revenue of mobile telecommunications made up 69.84% of the total, while fixed-line revenues accounted for 30.16%, dropping 3.2% points year on year.
China Unicom in discussion with Apple over iPad
China Unicom’s Senior Vice President Li Gang has claimed that the company is in prospective talks with Apple for the introduction flat-panel touch-screen iPad in the Chinese mainland.
Li informed that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) regards the device as being a telecommunications product. Thus, tests of quality and safety have to be carried out before distribution takes its way across the nation. However, Apple hasn’t yet initiated procedural duties such as sending samples of the device for testing.
Specific details on the models to be released by China Unicom have not been released.
Mobile Number Portability not to change China Mobile’s market shares
China Mobile had a net addition of 5.259 million customers in October, ranking the first among China’s three operators. Insiders said the “number portability commercial trial” won’t change the company’s leading position.
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has formally issued a document to the three operators-China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom, clearly expressed that the “number portability commercial trial” will be launched on November 22, in the city of Tianjin and Hainan, which means the highly concerned “number portability” has kicked off.
Number portability means that a Mobile user can switch carrier and enjoy the various services it provides without changing their phone number.
According to China Mobile, the company had a net addition of 5.259 million customers in October, compared to 5.401 million in September.
As at October 30, the company had 575.016 million customers and its net addition of customers since the beginning of this year had totalled 52.733 million.
Meanwhile, the number of customers who used 3G terminal was 15.279 million, up 1.702 million from 16.981 million a month ago.
Launch of mobile number portability to benefit China Unicom
China is to launch a commercial trial of mobile number portability in Tianjin Municipality and Hainan province on November 22, reported China Securities Journal, citing a document released by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).
The MIIT has formally issued the document to the country’s big three operators, China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom, clearly expressing that the “mobile number portability commercial trial” will be launched on November 22 in the cities of Tianjin and Hainan, which means the eagerly awaited “mobile number portability” has kicked off .
Mobile number portability, which allows people to change carriers without having to change numbers, will encourage China’s 3G users to switch to China Unicom from China Mobile, as the former’s 3G technology is more mature.
According to the document, in Tianjin, China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom ‘s 3G users can switch to other carriers without changing numbers, except TD-SCDMA users, but in Hainan, only China Mobile’s 3G users can switch to China Telecom and China Unicom, and th e latter two’s 3G users cannot switch to China Mobile.
China Unicom A-share gained 1.31 percent to close at 5.40 Yuan Friday, largely at market performance.
The benchmark Shanghai composite index rose 1.38 percent to refresh seven-month high closing at 3,129.50 points.
China to start MNP trial in October 2010
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has completed its tests in Tianjin and will start the trial operation of the mobile phone number portability service from October 2010.
The commercial trial will also be held in Tianjin and will be conducted in three stages. During the first year of the trial, mobile phone users can switch from networks of more competitive operators to those of less competitive operators.
In the second year, 2G users of the three operators can switch to any 2G network. And by the third year, the 3G users of China Unicom and China Telecom can switch to the 3G networks of their counterparts. However, 3G users of China Mobile will not be allowed to change their mobile communication service providers without the change of mobile numbers.
China Telecom mobile users rose to 3.07m
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: With an increase of 3.07 million in November 2009, China Telecom’s total mobile phone users’ number reached 52.99 million. In January, China Telecom’s newly-added mobile phone users reached 1.02 million, in October it topped 3 million, and in November it outpaced 3 million.
However, the number of local phone users, including fixed-line phone users and wireless local phone users decreased by 1.84 million to reach 191 million. The number of broadband users increased 690,000 in November and 8.57 million in total since 2009 to hit 52.84 million.
3G licenses were awarded to China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom at the beginning of this year by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). Currently, China Telecom ranks first among the nation’s Big Three telecoms operators with a 3G user base of 4.81 million by October 31, 2009.
