Qualcomm and Teleepoch Enter Into a 3G CDMA Subscriber Unit License Agreement, October 6, 2007

MTN chooses Cambridge Broadband Networks for multi-service wireless network in Rwanda, October 6, 2007

Brazilian government to publish 3G bidding rules soon, October 6, 2007

KTF 3G service suffers from technical problems, October 6, 2007

Argentina’s Personal lunches 3G service in Rosario, October 6, 2007

Russia has it's first 3G network, October 6, 2007

AT&T could drop Alcatel-Lucent as 3G mobile network supplier, October 6, 2007

Enea Extends License Agreement with ZTE for 3G Handsets, October 2, 2007

LG to unveil premium handsets in Brazil, October 2, 2007

KTF 3G subscribers doubled in less than 3 months, October 2, 2007

3G policy in India will be non-uniform, October 2, 2007

- previous news

Chinese 3G decision imminent

January 15, 2005 - source: BWCS

The lugubrious process of awarding 3G licences in China appears to drawing to a close. According to reports from Chinese news agency, Xinhua, a decision on which technologies and how many licences will be awarded will definitely be made this year. To date the Beijing administration has dragged its heels over the issue, hoping to give the home-grown 3G technology TD-SCDMA a chance to mature.

Rumours in the Chinese press indicate that the government is about to begin a major restructuring process of the national telecoms industry. It has even been suggested that the four national carriers: China Mobile, China Unicom (both mobile) and China Telecom and China Netcom (fixed line) may be forced to merge into two powerful operators. At the moment the four compete fiercely for customers.

A recent round of field tests on 3G technologies in China indicated that the domestically developed 3G standard was still some way behind the W-CDMA and CDMA technologies favoured by western countries. Putting a brave face on this result, the Deputy Minister for Information Industry, Xi Guohua, claimed the TD-SCDMA standard "has made great progress." However, he admitted the rival standards are fully ready for commercial service launch.

By the end of 2004 the Ministry of Information Industry put the number of mobile users in China at 334 million, up 65 million from the end of 2003. In contrast, the number of fixed line customers grew by only 53 million during 2004 to reach a total of 316 million. The Ministry expects the number of mobile subscribers to rise to 402 million in the People's Republic this year, giving whoever wins the 3G licences a very large market to attack.