China Telecom CDMA mobile plans

Tag : Mobile Phone CDMA

China Telecom , one of the world's largest fixed line phone operators will beginoffering a mobile phone service from October 1, the company hasannounced.
The company moved into the mobile market by purchasing the existingCDMA network of local firm China Unicom for $16.1bn in June. Thetransfer was part of a government-orchestrated reshuffle of China'stelecoms market, which has doubled the number of mobile networkoperators as the country slowly begins to introduce 3G services.
China Telecom plans to upgrade the CDMA network to offer full 3Gcapabilities next year. The company plans to spend $11.7bn on thisand improvements to 2G operations.
“China Telecom will have [a] relatively stronger position tooffer fixed mobile and multiple play bundled services (ie voice,broadband, IPTV and mobile) given its leading position in the fixedand broadband market; the relatively lower cost and faster tomarket to upgrade CDMA networks for 3G services, in comparison withChina Mobile’s TD network; relative stronger brand, marketingand customer field service in the potential multiple play bundledservices market,” said Hong Kong-based industry observers CWCheung and Charice Wang of telecoms consultancy, Ovum .
However, they warn that the CDMA network has poorer coverage andrevenue per user compared to dominant local mobile firm, ChinaMobile. They predict China Telecom will face challenges in productdevelopment and service offerings, customer segmentation and marketpositioning, and “customer service transformation (shift fromfixed location to on-the-move customer care)”.
China could have more than 64 million subscribers using 3G CDMAtechnology by 2012, according to forecasts from the Ministry ofIndustry and Information Technology. The ministry estimates that asimilar number will be using WCDMA and approximately half thatnumber will be using the locally-developed TD-SCDMA. ChinaTelecom's own predictions are more optimistic, with the companyhoping for 100 million CDMA subscribers within three years,according to Ovum.