The reorganization of China's telecommunication industry after the formation of Netcom, China Telecom, China Mobile, Unicom, Tietong five, plus not yet listed in the China Satellite Communications Group, which is the "5 +1" of the entire composition. For a period of time ago will give Netcom, telecommunications, mobile, Unicom issued a full-service license rumors, the official said this is only a direction, but in the short term is unlikely to be achieved, Netcom, Telecom to get the earliest mobile license to the end of 2002 to go.
As for why the mobile license issuance did not synchronize with the telecom restructuring. Morgan Stanley, a director of the analysis, China Mobile and Unicom are overseas listed companies, the issuance of new mobile licenses to promote the two companies' share prices fell, and the Chinese government has always been listed overseas "red chip" companies in the policy are very care, and sometimes even the competent authorities will be used to publish news to stop the decline in share prices, the previous example With China Mobile and Unicom shares now below analysts' ratings, the lag in issuing mobile licenses is inevitable.
In the original operator, China Telecom, Netcom, Jitong, Tietong have applied to the Ministry of Information Industry for a mobile license, Tietong because the fixed-line transformation is not completed its application report was rejected, Jitong and Netcom's merger will be the last competitor left Netcom, Telecom two. With the authorities in the third and fourth mobile license issuance time on the indecision, operators apparently have no patience to wait, there is news that telecommunications, Netcom, Tietong are secretly preparing for war, resulting in the formation of the fact that the mobile business.
Small smart phone to the national network?
Small smart first originated in Japan, is dependent on the existence of fixed telephone wireless phone, in Japan called PHS, UTStarcom will be introduced to let the production and named small smart (PAS).
From 97 years China telecom in zhejiang yuhang for the small smart release start, realize the city call tariffs, China telecom is now in more than 200 cities to carry out the small smart business, has 4 million users, and is ready to increase in three years to 30 million-50 million, in order to manage the small smart and other mobile business, China telecom specially in the technology department set up a wireless division.
What's strange is that in 1997, China Mobile hadn't yet been spun off from China Telecom, which was pushing its GSM mobile business, so why did it have to develop a mobile phone that conflicted with GSM? The Telecommunications Administration of the Ministry of Information Industry clearly has the most to say.
A Telecommunications Administration official said, China Telecom in the development of small smart, the starting point is to track new technologies, and later found that the entry fee of 6,000 yuan of GSM cell phones simply can not let low- and middle-income people to enjoy, so China Telecom decided to carry out in small and medium-sized cities and remote areas to rely on the fixed pair and in the fixed-line business as a complement to the small smart.
China Telecom, a local company president told reporters that China Telecom is preparing to network the country's small smart phone, so that small smart phone users to the price of local calls in the country for mobile roaming. The national network in three steps, one will be the counties below the city network, like Hebei Baoding has been realized, the second will be the province's network, Zhejiang, Hebei in this regard has come to the front, the third is the national small smart phone network.
It is reported that, from a technical point of view, the small smart phone compared with GSM and narrowband CDMA cell phone, the biggest advantage is the data transfer rate is high, 64 Kbs per second, while the GSM cell phone for 28.8 Kbs, narrowband CDMA system under the cell phone for 9.6 Kbs/second, but compared with the GPRS and the 2.5 generation of the CDMA, the small smart phone is not as good.
Small Cellular's Achilles' heel is an unstable signal, but UTStarcom's technicians think that problem can be solved over time, and UTStarcom believes that once the signal is stabilized and the phone is able to roam across the country, China Telecom will be able to rely on Small Cellular to compete with China Mobile and China Unicom. In UTStarcom's information, it was found that, like GSM, the transition direction of SmarTone to 3G is W-CDMA and TD-SCDMA, which only need to be replaced on the wireless side, and the core part of the base station can be upgraded to smooth the transition to 3G.
To contribute to the development of China Telecom's two standards in adopting the 3G standard, UTStarcom made an alliance with the Panasonic Corporation last year, using Panasonic to provide a platform for China Telecom to use the 3G signal to improve the quality of the service. UTStarcom allied with Japan's Panasonic Communications last year to use Panasonic's equipment to develop W-CDMA, coupled with UTStarcom's laboratory research in the U.S., UTStarcom carried out the first domestic W-CDMA voice calls at the Beijing International Communication Exhibition in October this year.
The success of the 3G test has strengthened UTStarcom's resolve to help China Telecom link up SmarTone across the country, which could bring the young international student-founded company a flood of money.
Huawei has revealed that UTStarcom is actively building an industrial alliance to bundle China Telecom-UStarcom with Panasonic Communications, with UTStarcom providing base stations, switches and other system equipment, and Panasonic providing handsets to serve China Telecom's W-CDMA network, and embedding the i-Mode function in the handsets.
Huawei's people said UTStarcom's idea is good, but China Telecom's unlicensed operation of mobile business makes the matter full of high risk, if the Chinese government continues to restructure and reform the southern telecom, China Telecom to get a mobile license after Netcom is entirely possible and will be delayed until 2005, when the major carriers have been in the large-scale development of the 3G business, UT period of time, Dakang lost the advantage of bringing domestic equipment vendors to the earliest success in 3G commercial trials.
Authorities dealing with SmarTone are divided
The biggest risk for SmarTone is that the current telecom management policy does not explicitly agree to the existence of SmarTone, and even the Ministry of Information Industry (MII), which has defaulted to the existence of SmarTone, has different attitudes toward SmarTone in its different divisions.
A deputy director of the Radio Authority said that in dealing with the issue of Little Smart, the Radio Authority and the Department of the Clearing House, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, the Radio Authority of the existence of a neutral attitude towards the existence of the Little Smart, that the market must be recognized as a side of the rationality of the side.
Because of the existence of the first small cell phone involves a spectrum possession problem, so the Radio Authority believes that the small cell phone should be included in the management of their own flag, the official revealed that in the previous period of time in the cleaning of the spectrum resources and does not involve the small cell phone. As for China Telecom's plan to link up SmarTone with the rest of the country, the Radio Authority believes that technically it should work, and that SmarTone's frequency in the whole country is unified. As the exchange of the small mobile phone is 1.9G, but accounted for some 3G frequency, if China Telecom really will be small mobile phone network, the country's frequency source is a waste.
The head of the Telecommunications Authority said the three departments and bureaus are not divided on the issue of SmarTone, but only consider the issue from different starting points due to their different functions. The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) recognizes SmarTone as a wireless local phone, which is a complement to China Telecom's fixed-line business. For the UT wants to borrow the small灵通 transition to the W-CDMA idea, the person in charge of the operability is very difficult, whether the technology is not to say, on its policy obstacles, he suggested that operators and the media should not listen to the manufacturer's side of the story, to have their own judgment.
The Department of Economic Regulation and Communications Clearing is very dissatisfied with the implementation of the market price, one-way charging, as a mobile business should be charged in accordance with the country's asymmetric control of Unicom's cell phone tariffs, that is to say, the small smart phone can be lower than the cell phone tariffs of China Mobile by 20%, but the need for two-way charging. Later, after a compromise, China Telecom's SmarTone tariffs were adjusted to 0.20 yuan per minute, without two-way charging for the time being.
A senior engineer at ZTE summarized the attitude of the Ministry of Information Industry's three departments and bureaus toward SmarTone as follows: the Radio Authority is neutral, the Telecommunications Authority is supportive, and the Department of Settlement of Fees and Charges is opposed. However, officials from the Ministry of Information Industry's Comprehensive Planning Department believe that the three departments and bureaus are only reviewing their own responsibilities, not different attitudes, and that the Radio Authority can only manage the frequency bands, and the Telecommunications Authority can only manage the operations, economic regulation and the Department of Communications Clearing can only manage the fees.
In the choice of 3G, China Telecom is still in the W-CDMA and CDMA2000 wavering between the two, although the weight tends to W-CDMA, but CDMA2000 in the technical maturity of China Telecom for the thumping of the heart, China Mobile in the development of W-CDMA transition to the GPRS business on the failure of China Telecom's decision to make the layer of the people began to pay more attention to the CDMA2000.
China Telecom's technical department officials said, in the field of CDMA2000 China Telecom is not a blank sheet of paper, the Shenzhen branch in this year to open a 2G narrow-band CDMA, the use of systems and terminals and Unicom has not yet released the number of the CDMA network is exactly the same. In order to spare the policy minefield, Shenzhen Telecom will be this business is called the city call, after a few months of operation, the user volume has more than 60,000 at present.
Citytalk, compared with SmarTone, is at a disadvantage because the opening city is only Shenzhen, unlike SmarTone, which has points all over the country; the advantage is that it can be started from CDMA2000 1X, and smoothly upgraded to CDMA2000, and SmarTone will have to change the motherboard and wireless side of the base station and all the other things, and then step by step, the transition to W-CDMA.
Standing behind China Telecom The battle is between ZTE and UTStarcom, which has been doing CDMA research and development since '95 and is the only domestic vendor with CDMA intellectual property rights. After becoming the supplier to the largest number of provinces in this year's CDMA bidding by Unicom, ZTE is more interested in other carriers joining the CDMA camp.
ZTE is competing with UTStarcom not only on the table, but also under the table, hoping to use the power of the government to push China Telecom to choose the 3G camp it stands in. But China Telecom, as the most senior carrier, is more interested in which standard will allow it to catch up with Unicom and China Mobile in terms of subscribers.
Ustarcom's W-CDMA test calls, and ZTE's CDMA test network with Shenzhen Telecom, are just two examples of the reefs that appear in the lower currents of the two.
How can Netcom do mobile?
Compared with China Telecom, Netcom has little experience in telecom operations, and even less experience in mobile operations, with its strengths mainly in data services.
From April 1999, the day the mobile business was spun off separately, China Telecom thought of applying for a mobile license, but it didn't go well. Netcom, which was set up in August 1999, joined the ranks of those applying for a mobile license from the end of last year and set up a mobile business strategy department.
If SmarTone is a tool for China Telecom's transition to mobile services, then Netcom's transition is wireless broadband access. The small smart phone relies on China Telecom's fixed-line network, and the wireless broadband relies on Netcom's broadband network.
Netcom will wireless broadband access project named Mobile Office (unlimited companion), the use of technology based on wireless local area network (WLAN), the frequency band for 2.4GHz, the maximum transmission speed of 11 megabits per second, the maximum coverage radius of 50-300 meters base station.
In May of this year, Netcom first did unlimited broadband access services in the China World Hotel trial service, and in October during the Shanghai APEC meeting to show their skills, for guests to participate in the meeting to provide a wireless broadband into the service, the user to be inserted into the laptop inside the Netcom's wireless card can be similar to the GSM cell phone users of the SIM card.
Netcom officials responsible for mobile affairs, said broadband access services and cell phone services in technology is closely linked, compared with the small smart phone, wireless broadband access to the biggest advantage is that it can realize the international roaming and domestic roaming, Netcom's wireless broadband users can now be opened in the first between the city roaming each other, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and other cities.
China Telecom people told that Netcom is not only building a wireless broadband network for national roaming, but at the same time has secretly set up a c-Mode base in Ningbo to provide Netcom's wireless broadband users with entertainment content support.
Goldman Sachs Asia said Netcom's choice of 3G standard is W-CDMA, and that its strategic partner SingTel's 3G choice is also W-CDMA, and that Lee Hsien Yang, president of SingTel, will meet with Netcom's president, Mr. Tian Suning, on Tuesday.
With Netcom, Northern Telecom and Jitong set to merge into a single company, the most important thing for people to worry about is how Netcom will deal with Northern Telecom's SmarTone, and whether it will continue to network and upgrade to W-CDMA, or whether Netcom will build a separate set of mobile operating networks. A northern telecom officials from the strength of the comparative analysis, Netcom using the small smart transition is more likely, which is not only the northern telecom power to speak, but also on the mobile operating experience is not a realistic choice.
Shares of China Mobile and Unicom both suffered setbacks on Nov. 19, dropping 5.65 percent and 5 percent, respectively, after Netcom's mobile affairs official last week accidentally passed along the news that Netcom would be granted a mobile license in a short time. In the sensitive moment of telecom reorganization, Netcom certainly does not want to be a target, and it was inevitable that some Netcom executives came out later to avoid rumors.
At the end of last year, Liu Cai, then director of the Ministry of Information Industry's Department of Policy and Regulations, revealed in a guest appearance at Sina that mobile tariffs will be "double to single", and the next day Hong Kong's stock market in the leading shares of China Mobile's pull-down plunge, coupled with the Tiger Fund and the listing underwriter of China Mobile Goldman Sachs teamed up to play a trick, China Mobile in just a few days, shrunk to HK$100 billion. 100 billion Hong Kong dollars.
In order to rescue the market, Wu Jichuan, the minister of information industry, rushed to Hong Kong, and at a cocktail party where he met with investors, Wu made it clear that it would be impossible for mainland cell phones to realize one-way charging in 2003. Although the share prices of China Mobile and Unicom have risen since the beginning of the year, they are generally not well regarded, and the government should not intervene in market behavior through administrative means.
Afterward, the Ministry of Information Industry and the State Planning Commission also agreed that market behavior should be resolved through market regulation, and that it was not appropriate for the government to intervene, so there was no longer a competent authority to intervene to protect the market during the ups and downs in the share prices of China Mobile and China Unicom this year, a move that has been rated quite highly by overseas public opinion.
Share prices do not affect the issuance of mobile licenses?
On the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Thursday, Nov. 22, China Mobile (HK0941) closed at 27.25, up 0.6 yuan from last Monday's close, while China Unicom (HK0762) closed at 8.95, up 1.5 yuan from last Monday's close. But each of the two stocks was up or down compared with the stock market last Tuesday. Garms, an analyst at Salomon Smith Barney, said that due to the downturn in international telecom stocks, China Mobile had been trading between HK$23-32 after this year's Chinese New Year, and Unicom fluctuated between HK$7.2-12.3, so last week's ups and downs were within the normal range.
The Ministry of Information Industry (MII) has taken an open-minded attitude toward the issuance of new mobile licenses, believing that the participation of multiple mobile carriers in the competition will surely promote market development. In an interview with the 21st Century Business Herald, an official from the Telecommunications Authority said that the United States and Hong Kong have more than two operators running mobile services, and that having multiple operators in such a large market on the mainland would allow for sufficient competition to bring more benefits to the people, and that it would be better if the competition could be at the level of that seen in the sale of groceries. But the official was cautious to say that the State Council has the power to issue mobile licenses, and the Ministry of Information Industry is only involved in some preliminary work.
Chinese officials at China Mobile and China Unicom have mixed feelings about the new mobile licenses. China Mobile Hong Kong spokesman Liu Ping said the influx of new forces will make the market more competitive, but the share price of China Mobile will have a certain impact, when asked if China Mobile once the share price fell to the government for help, Liu Ping, "Hey, hey," laughed a couple of times, and even said: "This is not good to say, not good to say. It's not easy to say. For some reason, China Unicom is more market-conscious than China Mobile, and its Hong Kong spokesman Ji Wei agreed in an interview with the 21st Century Business Herald that share prices should be determined by market behavior.
In the mobile market fight, fixed-line phones have not yet released the number of Tietong is not willing to be lonely, in the big brother of China Telecom's influence, Tietong has learned to step on two boats, while in Shanghai for the trial of Little Smart phone number, while embarking on the mobile business does not rely on fixed-line phones. Tietong officials revealed to this reporter, the current Tietong interest in Europe's popular GSM-R, R is the abbreviation of the word railway, GSM-R is the full meaning of GSM along the railroad, France and Germany in Europe has been in the railroad along the GSM mobile business put number.