Hong Kong may lose W-CDMA networks

Although no 3G licences have been issued to cover the mainland yet, the Chinese government recently announced that 'trail' TD-SCDMA networks are to be built in eight Chinese cities.

TD-SCDMA is, of course, China's own home-grown version of 3G and a direct competitor to W-CDMA which is already offered in Hong Kong by the likes of Hutchison (3), Sunday and CSL.

A shake-up of the whole Chinese mobile network industry is very definitely underway. For example, Hong Kong's Ming Pao newspaper recently reported that China's SASAC (State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission), has recommended that the nation's four main mobile operators should be restructured into three companies.

The plan is to ensure more effective competition in the industry. The paper also reported that fixed line operator, China Telecom, wants to buy the cdmaOne based network operated by China Unicom.

It appears that the country's two main fixed line operators, China Telecom and China Netcom are anxious to be awarded 3G licenses given that revenues from fixed telephony and broadband aren't growing too fast.

At the end of January 2007, China had 467.4 million mobile phone users compared to 369 million fixed line subscribers. China added 17.4 million fixed line users in 2006 whereas 67.7 million mobile subscribers were added, according to the government's own statistics.

The full Inquirer story ... Hong Kong may be forced to drop W-CDMA