More Chinese mobile shakeup rumours

ALMOST EXACTLY three years after the INQ printed the first rumours of a reshuffle amongst China's telecoms companies, the same speculation has resurfaced once again.

The common theme is that China Unicom's Cdmaone and GSM networks will be given to the fixed line operators. Only this time the split is the other way around. Shanghai Securities News is quoting Shi Wei, a director of economic system and management research as its source.

Wei reckons that China Telecom will now get the Cdmaone network and China Netcom will get the GSM one. China Mobile – by far the biggest player – will acquire a fixed line capability courtesy of China Tietong (formerly China Railcom).

The net result will be three converged telecoms operators with hopefully enough clout that they can end China Unicom's dominance. It has around 350 million out of China total of 520 million subscribers.

The FT is quoting Nokia's president for Greater China, Colin Giles, as welcoming the move.

And so he should because it will enable Nokia – which is thought to have around 40 per cent of the Chinese market – to sell to three different companies instead of the present two.

Sadly, there's no indication that the move might finally herald the announcement of who will get 3G licences and whether any of the operators will have to chose TD-SCDMA, China's home grown 3G technology.

China is beginning to look a bit tardy in trying to make up its mind over 3G – especially now that just across the border in North Korea, Orascom is building a 3G/W-CDMA network not just a GSM network as the INQ first thought.

The INQ would speculate that with the advantage that both W-CDMA and Cdma2000 now enjoy with established infrastructure and handset, TD-SCDMA just won't be able to compete on price.

See Also
North Korea may prove new market for nicked phones
More rumours of China Unicom split (from 2005!)
Hong Kong may be forced to drop W-CDMA