Tietong looks to go public in two years
By Jonathan Yeung and Zhang Jin (China Daily)Updated: 2006-12-07 09:30
Besides, Chan said, "all the mainland's telecom players are (raising money)
to secure a better position to prepare for the issue of 3G licences."
He also
said China Tietong has little chance of being acquired by a larger rival because
it serves a unique group of users.
China Tietong earned 12.9 billion yuan
(US$1.6 billion) in revenue from January to October. The figure is expected to
reach 15.5 billion yuan (US$1.94 billion) for the whole year, representing a year-on-year increase of 15 per cent, Zhao said.
Its
subscribers of fixed-line and broadband services in China will grow to 20
million and 2.97 million by the end of the year, up 32 per cent and 50 per cent
on an annual basis.
China Tietong is expected to see a 5 per cent growth
rate annually in earnings from railway customers in the next five years, Zhao
said.
His confidence was largely based on the increasing mileage of the
mainland's railways, which will amount to 87,000 kilometres by 2010 and 100,000
kilometres by 2020, up from the current 75,000.
As for the long-awaited
third-generation (3G) mobile business, Zhao said he hopes to see the Ministry of
Information Industry issue 3G licence "as soon as possible."
Mainland
telecom companies have been expecting the government to give the green light to
3G mobile for five years. When it happens, the move is expected to generate more
than US$10 billion in spending on equipment while stimulating further growth in
the mainland's maturing mobile market.
Repeated delays, however, have
made firms inpatient, especially fixed-line operators such as China Telecom and
China Netcom, which are expecting 3G operations to save them from slowdowns in
the telephone business.
China Tietong, which has 19.2 million fixed-line
users and 2.83 million broadband subscribers, is also eager for the licence,
because "it will definitely create a fresh revenue source."
Analysts
generally believe the mainland's big-four telecom firms China Mobile, China
Unicom, China Telecom and China Netcom may get the first batch of 3G licences.
But China Tietong has also been picked by the Ministry of Information
Industry to conduct WCDMA and TD-SCDMA trial runs in Beijing and Shanghai.
"We could co-operate with 3G operators after
the licences are issued if we are not in the first batch," said Zhao, adding
China Mobile would be the "most ideal partner."
"China Teitong has
completed and unified its national networks and China Mobile is the mainland's
largest mobile carrier ... our future co-operation will unleash huge synergy,"
Zhao said.
Its 3G test results are good in terms of coverage and various
technological standards and have met the requirements of commercial use of the
3G standards, he said.
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