China to issue telecom licenses permitting mobile and fixed line ops
China is expected to issue full-service licenses to telecom operators in 2008, permitting them to operate both mobile and fixed-line services, the official Xinhua news agency reported, citing information industry minister Wang Xudong.
Wang said the current industry structure, which limits China Telecom and China Netcom (NYSE:CN) to fixed-line operations and China Mobile and China Unicom to mobile services, runs against the trend of available technologies and hinders the industry’s development.
Wang said full-service franchises for the telecom industry are a reasonable solution to this problem.
The introduction of full-service licensing is expected to facilitate the long-speculated restructuring of the industry, which will allow the weaker fixed-line companies to offer mobile services to better compete with China Mobile.
Mobile businesses will likely be transferred to China Telecom and Netcom amid proposals to break up Unicom.
China Mobile dominates the industry, reporting nine months net profit of 59.88 bln yuan, exceeding the combined profit of the other three major operators.
Tags: China-Mobile, China-Netcom, China-Telecom, China-Unicom