Source: CCTV.com

03-17-2009 08:30

As China enters the 3G era, competition among the country's big three telecom operators is getting fiercer. Guan Xin take a closer look at their different timetable and latest development.

As China enters the 3G era, competition among the country's big three telecom operators is getting fiercer.

The three telecom operators were awarded different 3G licenses in January. And China Mobile took the lead to launch the TD-SCDMA commercial use the same month. China Telecom starts CDMA2000 commercial trials this month, and China Unicom will start WCDMA commercial trials in April.

China Mobile rolled out the TD-SCDMA based 3G service in a first batch of 10 cities. Its second phase of network construction is in full swing and will cover an additional 28 cities by June. And full coverage of the whole country is expected by 2011.

Although the home-grown TD-SCDMA technology is a late comer on the world's 3G stage, one expert says the gap will be quickly narrowed.

Yang Hua, general secretary of TD-Scdama Industry Alliance, said, "The market prospect is now very clear. China Mobile is also actively cooperating with manufactures of the industrial chain to boost diversified product manufacturing and the commercial standard. So I think that although there is still a gap between TD and the other two standards which are mature in the world market, the gap will be narrowed quickly, along with the continuing market expansion and large-scale application."

The other two operators combined serve only one third of China's mobile users. But they are also actively developing 3G service based on their own advantages.