China Unicom eyes CDMA-GSM link
( 2003-09-17 15:01) (Bloomberg News)
China United Telecommunications Corp (China Unicom), the nation's second-largest cell-phone company, said it has successfully tested a US-based Qualcomm Inc technology designed to link the world's two most widely used wireless standards.
The system that uses code division multiple access technology to transmit phone calls and Internet data over its global system for mobile communications network "works very much according to our requirements," Ju Zhenguo, manager of China United's Suzhou branch in Jiangsu Province, said.
Linking CDMA to GSM networks may boost Qualcomm's efforts to win customers for its latest technology, which sends data fast enough to allow users to receive movie clips. China United's 21-month-old network in the country using Qualcomm's standard - used by 164 million people compared with 850 million for GSM - needs a boost as it has fallen short of targets.
"It's an interesting technology," said Niq Lai, an analyst with Credit Suisse First Boston in Hong Kong. Making it commercially viable may be a challenge, he said, because "there isn't much global acceptance of this combination."
Qualcomm shipped equipment for the trial in Suzhou in April. A successful trial will allow China United, the world's first phone company to test the GSM1X standard, to upgrade its older GSM network and merge it with its CDMA network. The company's Hong Kong-listed unit China Unicom Ltd said it signed up 4.8 million CDMA customers in the first seven months, trailing its target for 11.4 million new users this year.
Billions of dollars ride on which standard phone firms choose to upgrade networks to sell services such as movie-clip downloads. Linking the rival standards would open a new option to more than 500 GSM operators, including China Mobile, to use San Diego-based Qualcomm's technology to offer faster services.
Qualcomm Chairman and Chief Executive Irwin Jacobs and China United Vice President Zhang Fan are scheduled to announce the test results in Suzhou today.
The experiment, originally estimated to take about a month, was put on hold in May because of SARS. China United's Ju wouldn't say when the technology may be commercially available, or whether any handset makers agreed to supply phones.
Spending by Chinese phone companies on networks rose 45 percent to 93 billion yuan (US$11.2 billion) in the first seven months of the year, government statistics show.
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