Battle begins over 3G market
The launching of the third-generation services by China’s leading cell phone operators this fall signals the start of a battle for top position in the world’s largest mobile phone market.
For smaller rivals China Unicom and China Telecom, the goal is to topple long-time leader China Mobile.
China’s second-largest cell phone operator, China Unicom, officially launched its 3G services last month.
However, experts said that the China Mobile’s lead is unlikely to change, at least in short term.
Although China Mobile was forced to develop China’s homegrown 3G standard, TD-SCDMA, almost on its own, neither competitor seems ready to pose a serious threat, analysts said
China Unicom’s 3G strategy apparently is taking a back seat to its widely publicized deal with Apple Inc to bring the US technology company’s popular iPhone handset to China. Experts said the company has been slow to launch 3G services.
China Telecom, which launched its e-Surfing 3G brand late last year, is technically incompatible with most mobile phones used in China.
China Telecom launched a huge marketing campaign during the past few months to promote a series of its 3G services such as mobile email, Internet surfing and video calls.
“From the publicized strategies of the major Chinese telecom operators, I don’t think China Mobile’s dominant position will be challenged in the near future,” said Wang Yuquan, a senior consultant at the research firm Frost & Sullivan.
Wang said neither China Unicom nor China Telecom has focused on the core value of 3G services.
As a technology that supports faster data transmission speeds, 3G networks enable mobile phone users to search the Internet at faster speeds and use 3G services such as video calls and mobile TV.
The Chinese telecom operators hope the new service becomes a fast-growing source of revenue, since traditional cell phone income has declined in recent years due to market saturation and increased competition.
A head start
In January, the Chinese government issued 3G licenses to its major telecom operators.
To even the playing field between China Mobile and its smaller competitors, the government ordered China Mobile to adopt the country’s home grown 3G standard, TD-SCDMA.
TD-SDMA is believed to be less developed than the WCDMA standard adopted by China Unicom and the CDMA2000 standard adopted by China Telecom.
Many believe the government’s decision will give China Unicom and China Telecom a head start, since China Mobile needs more time to develop TD-SCDMA and win support from handset manufacturers.
However, that did not prevent China Mobile from announcing its 3G brand “G3″ on the same day in January that the Chinese government granted the 3G licenses - three months earlier than when China Unicom unveiled its “Wo” 3G brand in April.
China Mobile is also the first to launch its own online application store, which allows its users to download a variety of mobile applications.
Tags: 3G, CDMA2000, China-Mobile, China-Telecom, China-Unicom, TD-SCDMA, WCDMAPages: 1 2
