China Telecom launches CDMA2000 compatible iPhone 4S
Mar-29-2012 By : agxadmin
China Telecom started selling a version of Apple’s iPhone 4S compatible with its CDMA2000 network on March 16. China Telecom offers black and white versions of the iPhone 4S in 16 GB, 32 GB and 64 GB versions, some of which will be free under certain contracts. Users who sign a two-year contract at a monthly fee of CNY389 will get a 16 GB handset free of charge. Lower contract fees provide a competitive edge over China Unicom’s iPhone offers. A two-year contract for the 32 GB model only requires a monthly payment of CNY489, which is CNY97 less than the same offer from China Unicom. The speed offered by China Unicom’s 3G network is on average four times faster than that of China Telecom, said Xu Zhen, Telecommunications Specialist with d1net.com, an information technology portal. China Telecom said Apple’s iPhone will be good for its long-term development but might bring short-term profit pressure. Independent analyst Xiang Ligang said cooperation with Apple will not initially offer China Telecom short-term profits. “The carrier spends a lot of money on mobile phone subsidies, and the result is, at the moment, the more iPhones they sell, the more money they lose,” Xiang said. China Telecom spent CNY15.6 billion in 2011 on handset subsidies, up 29.1% from 2010, and sees no let-up for the moment. “The amount of money we’ll spend on mobile phone subsidies this year will not be less than last year,” Chief Financial Officer Wu Andi said, although mobile handset subsidies as a percentage of mobile service revenue will continue to fall, “if subsidies on iPhones aren’t included”. The figure has already declined to 22.9% in 2011 from 33.6% in 2009. The company has set 2012 capital expenditure at about CNY54 billion, up 9% from 49.6 billion in 2011, and 70% of the money is earmarked for upgrading broadband networks. China Telecom said 2011 profit rose 10.5% to CNY16.4 billion, as growing use of mobile phones offset a decline in its traditional fixed-line business. Revenue rose 11.7% to CNY245 billion.
China Mobile participates in Pakistan 3G auction
By : agxadmin
China Mobile Communications Corp has confirmed its participation in an auction of Pakistan’s third-generation wireless spectrum. Pakistan has been the only overseas market for China Mobile since it bought Paktel, a loss-making Pakistani carrier, for USD284 million from Millicom International Cellular in 2007. The company was renamed China Mobile Pakistan (CMPak), and its services were rebranded as “Zong” in 2008. If successful, China Mobile will offer the 3G services on a WCDMA network, which is different from the TD-SCDMA technology it is using in China. The Zong brand has seen the largest net growth in mobile users in Pakistan in the past three years, according to the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority, although CMPak is only the fifth-largest of Pakistan’s six telecom operators. Zong had a user base of 13.2 million by October, rising from less than 1.5 million in 2007. Fan Yunjun, CEO of CMPak, said that China Mobile had invested USD1.5 billion in Pakistan so far. China Mobile is actively pushing for its homegrown 4G TD-LTE technology to be adopted worldwide. All three major Chinese operators have made tentative moves to expand overseas. In 2009, China Unicom (Hong Kong) agreed to a tie-up with the Spanish telecom company Telefonica, with each partner holding a stake in the other. This year, China Telecom plans to start selling a wireless service to consumers in the United States, and may even consider building or buying its own wireless network in the U.S., the China Daily reports.
Hong Kong’s Hutchison to launch 4G service by June
By : agxadmin
Hutchison Telecommunications Hong Kong is preparing to launch its 4G mobile network “within the first half of this year” to meet rising demand for high-speed, wireless data services in the city. Chief Executive Peter Wong said the timing would depend on the wider availability of devices that supported the network. The operator, a unit of conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa, formed a joint venture called Genius Brand with HKT, the telecom arm of PCCW, which won a government license in 2009 to deliver citywide 4G services on a block of radio spectrum in the 2.6 gigahertz (GHz) band. Wong’s 4G announcement followed that of HKT Group Managing Director Alex Arena, who said last month that HKT was ready to roll out its 4G services by the middle of this year. Huawei Technologies was contracted by Genius Brand in August last year to build and deploy an advanced mobile infrastructure based on the 4G standard “frequency-division duplexing, long-term evolution” (LTE). Wong said Hutchison Telecom had not yet drawn up plans to develop another 4G network on its own that would deliver services based on the 4G standard called “time-division duplexing LTE”. The company last month won a license to operate 4G services on a block of spectrum in the 2.3 GHz band, which it had acquired for HKD150 million in a government tender. Hutchison Telecom, which operates both wireless and fixed-line networks, reported a 35% increase in net profit to HKD1.02 billion last year from HKD755 million in 2010. The result was fueled by record growth in smart-phone sales and data usage in its mobile business, while its fixed-line business achieved steady gains, the South China Morning Post reports.
TVB and Shanghai Media Group set up joint venture
By : agxadmin
Hong Kong’s TVB plans to form a joint venture with the state-owned Shanghai Media Group (SMG) to help it expand in the Chinese market. SMG’s former Chairman Li Ruigang is expected to run the venture out of Shanghai. Li’s only job title now is Chairman of Shanghai-based China Media Capital (CMC), a semi-official investment fund backed by SMG and China Development Bank (CDB). At CMC, Li impressed the industry by setting up a joint venture with U.S. filmmaker DreamWorks Animation to produce Chinese films using U.S. technology.
China to become world’s largest mobile application market
By : agxadmin
China, already the world’s biggest mobile phone market, is now close to become the world’s biggest mobile application market, thanks to a huge mass of mobile device users and great potential in the smartphone market, iResearch said. By the end of October, China’s Apple iOS installations among iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users accounted for 13% of the global total, second only to the U.S. with 29%. In February, China passed the U.S. for the first time in new activations of iOS and Android smartphones and tablets, according to U.S.-based Flurry, a maker of software for tracking use of mobile applications. “China’s large population and emerging middle class make it an increasingly important market,” iResearch said in a report. The installed base gap between China and the U.S. is closing because “not only is China already the second-largest app economy, but also could eventually overtake the U.S. with the largest installed base of smart device users,” Flurry said. Last month, 23% of activations of mobile devices based on iOS or Google’s Android software occurred in China, compared with 22% in the U.S. China accounted for 8% of the world’s activations, while the U.S. led with 28% in January 2011, Flurry said.
- KURT VANDEPUTTE (UMICORE) APPOINTED CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF THE FLANDERS-CHINA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE (FCCC)
- Webinar: “Knowing Your Chinese Partner” – May 26, 2021, 10 am – 12 am
- EMA starts rolling review of CoronaVac, WHO approves Sinopharm vaccine for emergency use
- The Global Times warns not to politicize the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI)
- Hainan to become biggest duty-free market in the world