Heavy spending on 3G over 3 years

By Zhu Shenshen  |   2009-1-23  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

CHINA will invest about 400 billion yuan (US$58.82 billion) over three years to construct the next generation mobile network so that the 3G system will cover all cities and most counties nationwide, the industry regulator said yesterday.

The 3G, or third generation, will grow rapidly in future and half of the cell phone users will choose 3G handsets within five years, industry insiders said.

The three telecommunication carriers with 3G licenses ?? China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom ?? will invest heavily in 3G and will attract about 50 million 3G users each within three years, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Through the high-speed 3G networks, users can have more data-intensive services on their mobile phones, such as video call and film download.

China Telecom will operate the CDMA 2000 (code division multiple access) standard, China Unicom will use the WCDMA (wideband CDMA) and China Mobile will run the home-developed TD-SCDMA (time division-synchronous CDMA).

"After the long waiting period, 3G will develop rapidly and the 3G subscriber base will account for 50 percent of all handset users within five years," brokerage China Securities Co said.