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’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.
Apple wins approval to sell 3G iPad in China
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has announced that Apple Inc. has won approval to sell its 3G iPad tablets in China.
The approval came four months earlier when Apple started selling iPad with Wi-Fi in China. China Unicorn will be providing the 3G data plans for the iPad 3G as it goes on for sale.
China is the world’s largest wireless market, the demand of Apple product is getting higher each day.
Apple has added new Apple retail stores in major cities of China and also launched a new Chinese Apple online store.
China Unicom rebuke locking Apple IPhone to its network
China Unicom has reportedly been warned about protecting customer rights after it started locking the Apple iPhone to its network.
The warning came from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which regulates the industry after the phone network started locking handsets from the beginning of this month.
According to China Unicom, users would have their iPhones locked and their bundled phone numbers suspended if the two are being used separately. This restriction has been put into new contracts since December 1.
Although only China Unicom offers the necessary 3G network for the mobile data service, the handset can be used on Wi-Fi hotspots and for voice calls on the rival China Mobile network.
China Unicom’s new service contract of IPhone brings government rebuke
China Unicom’s new service contract with new users of the iPhone brought a rebuke from government regulators as the contract caused “widespread concern”.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has asked the operator to respect and protect the legitimate rights and interests of telecommunications users, improve the service agreement, and improve service quality.
China Unicom said that since this week new users of the iPhone service bundle who break the service contract will be penalized.
It will check the usage of services, SIM cards and numbers via its back office systems on a monthly basis.
If someone is found to be using an iPhone with another operator’s SIM card, the user’s number and mobile phone will be locked.
China Unicom is the sole partner of iPhone in China which means the smartphones sold in the country are expected to belong to its network.
Analysts believe that the new regulation is mainly to curb speculative reselling of iPhones and partly to beat back China Mobile, the country’s top mobile carrier, in the domestic market.
MIIT officials said that China Unicom had promised that the company would maintain the healthy development and promote fair competition o f telecom market and would make great efforts to respect and protect consumer rights and improve its 3G service.
China Mobile plans to set up three trial TD-LTE networks
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Three trial TD-LTE networks in China has been decided to be set up by China Mobile with the networks established in Qingdao, Xiamen and Zhuhai at the beginning of the third quarter of this year.
The development of TD-LTE was started by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) together with the telecommunications industry at end of 2008 in three phases. Trial of technological concepts was done in the first phase and was completed in June 2009.
The ongoing R&D and experiments of the second phase will be completed in June this year. China mobile is planning to begin the third phase by setting up the three trial networks.
Google’s Android platform would not be limited: China
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in China, Google’s Android mobile phone platform in the Chinese market would not be limited until it complied with Chinese law.
Earlier this month, the world’s top search engine announced that it may shut its Chinese-language google.cn website and offices in China after a cyber-attack originating from China that also targeted other firms.
Taiwan launches 3G network using Chinese technology
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: China lauded the successful launch of 3G mobile network using Chinese TD-SCDMA technology in Taiwan. It considered it as a successful display of the technological partnership of the two countries.
After several trips made by officials from China to Taiwan, the launch of the network was possible. Chairman of the world’s largest mobile network operator, China Mobile, spent several days in Taipei to promote TD-SCDMA.
Vibo Telecom, a 3G mobile operator in Taiwan launched the TD-SCDMA trial network on Tuesday in Taipei and became one of the few companies running a TD-SCDMA trial outside of China.
According to China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, by the trial of TD-SCDMA network in Taiwan, local handset makers and network equipment developers will get a good place to test TD-SCDMA devices. The ministry also said that Taiwanese and Chinese companies can research ways to install WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) technology alongside TD-SCDMA technology thus gaining experience in dual-network compatibility.
China Telecom plans a US$4 billion contract for CDMA expansion (China)
China Telecom, world’s largest telecom operator in terms of subscribers, in process of taking over China Unicom ‘s CDMA network, has issued tenders for a network expansion. The key aim of the contract is to increase coverage areas rather than boost the quality of service in areas already under CDMA coverage. he initial contracts are expected to be awarded within a few weeks. According to the industry sources, the contracts are expected to be worth around US$4 billion.
Based on a recent study from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology estimates 64million CDMA subscribers by 2012, whereas, China Telecom had originally expected a subscriber base of 100million by 2012. However, figures from the Mobile World database show that China Unicom ended Q1 ’08 with just under 43 million CDMA subscribers.
