Chunghwa Telecom establishes subsidiary in Shanghai (China)
Chunghwa Telecom (CHT) has announced that it has established a wholly owned subsidiary, Chunghwa Telecom (China), in Shanghai. The company opened the subsidiary to promote CHT’s intelligent energy-saving solutions iEN, information and communication technology (ICT) integrated solutions for business use, smart and green building solutions as well as value-added services based on mobile networks and the internet.
CHT indicated that iEN will be initially promoted in Fujian Province, southeastern China, through cooperation with the provincial branch of China Mobile .
It pointed out that target customers for ICT integrated solutions will be initially Taiwan-based enterprises or business units in China which are using CHT services, and then foreign enterprises operating in China.
Alcatel-Lucent to deploy trial TD-LTE network in Shanghai (China)
Alcatel-Lucent has announced that it has been selected by China Mobile to participate in a TD-LTE trial network deployment in China.
Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell will be working on a TD-LTE trial in the city of Shanghai, which is one of seven cities where China Mobile is testing LT-LTE services.
The tests were conducted in both 2.3GHz and 2.6GHz frequency bands for indoor and outdoor deployments and relied on Alcatel-Lucent’s industry-leading LTE expertise to provide an end-to-end integrated solution including LTE base stations (eNodeBs), the Evolved Packet Core (EPC). Alcatel-Lucent’s solution successfully passed interoperability tests with two unnamed terminal suppliers.
China Mobile to promote WLAN in Shanghai
China Mobile is reportedly planning to install wireless local network WLAN hot spots across Shanghai, covering 35 million square meters of building space in 2011, including transportation hub, commercial center, universities, public and recreational places.
The network will be able to serve up to 700,000 users at a time.
At present, China Mobile’s WLAN covers Shanghai Pudong Airport, various train stations, spots along Nanjing Road and Starbucks branches across the city.
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 Mobile about to deploy TD-LTE trials
China Mobile is planning to commence TD-LTE trials in as many as half a dozen cities.
As per reports citing, Chairman Wang Jianzhou, equipment for what would be the world’s first metro TD-LTE trials is in place and the company is waiting for MIIT approval. The operator has a TD-LTE trial network for the past six months at the Shanghai Expo, which closed last week.
As per Mr. Wang, TD-LTE had progressed faster than expected, mainly because of the massive growth in data services in China, and the fast take-up of smartphones. Many foreign operators were interested in the trials, which would take place in three to six cities.
According to reports, the operator has deployed 3,000 base stations in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Shenzhen and Xiamen.
According to the analyst, He Tingrun, chip development was the weakest link in the TD-LTE value chain, and the government also needed to offer incentives to handset manufacturers. The government-owned research institute CATR last month began testing 2.6GHz TD-LTE chips.
China Unicom to launch mobile payment services next month
If sources are to be believed, China Unicom plans to implement commercial mobile payment services in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chongqing in November.
According to the source, Unicom will introduce the services to users by exchanging their SIM cards for free or granting them new mobile phones for free.
Unicom has inked the deal with China UnionPay to launch its mobile payment services through UnionPay’s ATMs.
Earlier Unicom conducted trial application of the services in the four cities, attracting over one million users.
CDMA-based iPhone to Hit Chinese Market
Deutsche Bank lately issued a report, saying that China Telecom Corporation Ltd. will launch iPhone that is compatible with the CDMA technology, whose chips will be supplied by Qualcomm Inc. and production will be taken over by Foxconn Technology Group.
Analysts believe that the promotion of CDMA-based iPhone in China is one important step of the global expansion of Apple Inc. Although the country currently only accounts for less than 10% of the gross revenues of the company from iPhone around the world, it has great potential for future growth.
Apple is believed to change its strategy to have exclusive cooperation with one certain telecommunications carrier in one country. For example, in China, the company has set up two regular chain stores in Beijing and Shanghai, no more solely depending on the sales network of China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd. alone.
Since Apple tenders the olive branch to China Mobile Ltd. and China Telecom, the latter certainly welcome the good intention. The Shanghai branch of China Mobile begins to exchange Micro SIM cards for users of iPhone 4 and iPad from now on till October 18 and present them with top-up cards for their mobile phones.
China Telecom, Alcatel-Lucent collaborates to organizes CDMA PTT Service
Alcatel-Lucent has organized its CDMA Push-To-Talk (PTT) service for China Telecom. This service is going to be one of its kinds in China which will target vertical and enterprise customers and will be commercialized across the country by the end of August. The commercial contract was secured by Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell the flagship company of Alcatel-Lucent in China which previously deployed China Telecom’s CDMA EVDO-based solution.
Alcatel-Lucent’s CDMA service allows private and group calls to be established across the wireless service coverage area at the push of a single button.
Alcatel-Lucent provided its high-capacity, high-performance CDMA end-to-end solution including systems for registration management, group management, data management, new lease line application, and network management. Alcatel-Lucent also provided professional integration and system development services to integrate such services as radio access network (RAN) and Packet Data Serving Node (PDSN) deployed by various suppliers on many sorts of handsets. Alcatel-Lucent acted as project leader to provide a customized solution and manage and coordinate all relevant vendors in the process.
According to Romano Valussi, president of Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell, the project further enhances our long-term partnership with China Telecom and confirms Alcatel-Lucent’s leading position in the CDMA market in China. Alcatel-Lucent’s advanced solution and enriched network management experience will help China Telecom provide more flexible, value-added services to the strategic vertical and enterprise markets.
