Wednesday, January 25, 2017 at 3:47PM Despite industry headwinds, Chinese telcos rack up more bumper numbers
4G, MIIT in Mobile China, Telecoms China Monday, May 9, 2016 at 7:59PM China's newest operator, the under-sized state-owned cable player, has a hard road to travel.
CBN, MIIT, cable, convergence in Internet China, Telecoms China Monday, December 1, 2014 at 9:12AM China gets serious about introduce private investment into broadband, with trials planned for 16 cities. But the game is stacked in favour of the incumbents, and it's not even clear who can play.
MIIT, broadband, regulation in Internet China Monday, June 30, 2014 at 7:20PM This blog pleads guilty to a mild bout of irrational exuberance over the issue of FDD-LTE trial licences on Friday.
For sure the licences give China Telecom and China Unicom the chance to build out FDD in 16 cities. But in each case only two of those cities are tier-1, and it's telling that Beijing is not one of them.
Plus, as Sina Tech notes, the wording of the MIIT announcement is revealing, repeatedly declaring that these were "LTE network integration trials," just to make sure that the trial deployments would include TD-LTE and not just the much-preferred FDD flavour.
So the allocation of the licences is signficant, but the detail suggests the MIIT is not in a hurry to open the gates to full nationwide FDD rollout. TD, the national champion, gets precedence.
FDD is a big deal for the two operators because, to quote Sina again, competing with China Mobile on TD alone is a "dead-end street."
On the other hand, Telecom and Unicom execs will no doubt be planning to take advantage of the hazy definition of just what is an FDD base station or terminal, and just how vigilantly the MIIT will police it. A report at IT Sohu suggests that many of the networks will become "underground FDD" systems - operating commercially under the cover of a TD licence. That wouldn't be the first time in China telecoms.
FDD rollout cities
China Telecom: Lanzhou, Xian, Shijiazhuang, Jinan, Chongqing, Chengdu, Zhengzhou, Wuhan, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Nanning, Hefei, Nanchang, Haikou.
China Unicom: Harbin, Shenyang, Shijiazhuang, Jinan, Taiyuan, Zhengzhou, Chongqing, Chengdu, Wuhan, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Fuzhou, Changsha, Guangzhou, Shenzhen.
China Telecom, China Unicom, FDD-LTE, MIIT in Mobile China Tuesday, March 4, 2014 at 12:24PM China Mobile, the latecomer to the MVNO party says it has chosen 17 MVNO partners and is awaiting approval from the MIIT. After that it hopes to sign agreements with the MVNOs, China’s National Business Daily reports.
China Mobile is months behind rivals China Telecom and China Unicom, whose MVNO partners were issued licences in December. Both Telecom and Unicom say they expect trials to start in Q2, according to the NBD.
China Mobile won’t reveal the names of its MVNO partners, but one small Shanghai-listed telco, Dr Peng Group, said it had applied and was waiting for a response.
A China Mobile spokesperson told the NBD in an email: “We are very willing to cooperate with MVNOs, to launch richer business and services and to satisfy customer demand for personalised and differentiated apps.”
China Mobile, MIIT, MVNO in Mobile China