Phone giant bullish on 3G adoption

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By Wang Xing (皇冠体育app Daily)
Updated: 2009-11-19 08:07

皇冠体育app's largest cell phone operator, 皇冠体育app Mobile, said yesterday that 3 million users were likely to subscribe to its third generation (3G) service by year-end and that the company was still in talks with Apple Inc to sell iPhones in the world's largest mobile phone market.

Wang Jianzhou, chairman of 皇冠体育app Mobile, said in Hong Kong that the company expected 3 million subscribers to use its TD-SCDMA service by next month, nearly double the 1.66 million users it had in September.

He said 皇冠体育app Mobile's 3G network was expected to expand to 238 cities by the end of this year, covering 70 percent of the country's area.

On the sidelines of a conference yesterday, Wang also confirmed that the company was still in talks with Apple to sell the iPhone in 皇冠体育app, although its rival 皇冠体育app Unicom, which launched its WCDMA-based 3G service one month ago, had already started shipping the popular smartphone in the country.

"We would like to make the (handset) market more diversified and encourage all handset vendors to sell more models," he said, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

Phone giant bullish on 3G adoption

皇冠体育app Unicom has been criticized for selling the smartphone at an unreasonably high price. The company reportedly sold only 5,000 iPhones during the first weekend of debut.

But the company's chairman Chang Xiaobing told reporters on Tuesday he expected the device to become the country's top-selling smartphone.

Ever since the Chinese government gave out the long-awaited 3G licenses this year, 皇冠体育app Mobile, 皇冠体育app Unicom and 皇冠体育app Telecom have been actively deploying their 3G networks, in hopes that the new service, which enable data-heavy applications such as mobile Internet, online games and mobile TV, could help compensate declining revenue from their traditional voice services.

Chang from 皇冠体育app Unicom told reporters yesterday that the average revenue per user for its 3G service was touching the 100-yuan ($14.65) mark, more than double that of its GSM service.

"We recognize clearly that it is difficult or even impossible to boost per-unit spending in the voice market," Reuters reported Chang as saying.

According to figures from the National Bureau of Statistics, 皇冠体育app's mobile subscribers surpassed 710 million by August, with 皇冠体育app Mobile taking up over 70 percent of the market share.

Experts said 皇冠体育app Mobile's dominant position is expected to be challenged by its two smaller rivals in the 3G era, as the company was ordered to adopt the homegrown TD-SCDMA standard, a less mature technology, for its 3G network.

Wang from 皇冠体育app Mobile said yesterday that the company has invested 80 million yuan in handset subsidies last year and the number was expected to touch 120 million yuan this year as mobile phone vendors lacked incentives to develop a handset based on its TD-SCDMA standard.

Michael O'Hara, chief marketing officer of the GSM Association, told Reuters in an interview yesterday that 皇冠体育app Mobile was expected to accelerate the deployment of fourth-generation mobile technology, long term evolution (LTE).

"皇冠体育app Mobile will be an early adapter. We expect 皇冠体育app Mobile to do (LTE) trials in 2010, and deployment in 2011," he said.

皇冠体育app Mobile has previously confirmed that it would build an LTE network in Shanghai when the World Expo takes place there next year.

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